Flying Machines and Sweet Dreams
Yes, the title is drawn from a line in a James Taylor song. No, it never thrilled me and is not about a plane crash . But we do want to dream — mayhaps a thought experiment — about designing something better. We can draw inspiration from living things and also consider how humans built flying machines. Certain aspects of bird wings and bat wings are studied, as are those of dragonflies , for our own purposes. We cannot apply flapping to our device, we can glean principles from creatures. Leonardo's ornithopter image credit: Flickr / James Wink ( CC BY-ND 2.0 ) It's ironic that those who saddle up and ride for the Darwin brand believe in naturalism and that living things only appear to be designed (a faith-based assertion that has nothing to do with empirical science), but will get on a plane that is engineered through meticulous planning. Even then, living things are far more sophisticated than anything humans devise. A commercial flying device is required to meet stringent