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How Insects Fly*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

R. E. Snodgrass
R. E. Snodgrass*
Affiliation:
Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture
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Extract

A particular interest attaches to the study of the wings of insects, because, in some respects, they act more after the manner of human inventions for aerial locomotion than do the wings of any other flying creature. Though man has never been successful in equipping himself with wings, and has largely given up the hope of acquiring them, he has succeeded in making machines that will fly; and, whether his craft is lighter than air or heavier than air, its driving mechanism is a set of rotating blades, the nearest counterparts of which in the animal world are the rapidly-whirring wings of certain insects.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 37 , Issue 266 , February 1933 , pp. 113 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1933

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Footnotes

*

Abridged. Reprinted by courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

References

Text References and a List of the More Important Papers on the Mechanism of Insect Flight

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