Planes from a snake - flying snakes may aid aircraft design

Research conducted in America on “flying snakes” is increasing our understanding of aerodynamic technology and the new information on the reptiles could be used to improve wind turbine and aeroplane designs.

In two new studies, engineers have used simulations in an attempt to understand how the wingless reptile, from the genus Chrysopelea, manages to remain airborne reported The Columbian.

According to The Guardian the snakes are found in the lowland rainforests of south-east and south Asia. Flying snakes (which actually glide rather than fly) are fairly small creatures, growing to lengths of just over a metre and about the diameter of a lipstick. But jumping from a tall tree they can reach a horizontal distance of 10 times their body length.

While in the air, the snakes transform their shape, splaying their ribs and flattening their bodies. Through computational and physical modelling researchers have discovered that this adapted shape allows them to increase their aerodynamics whilst creating whirlwinds of air above their bodies to suck them upwards.

“Little by little, we built a theory about how the snakes are interacting with the air to generate very large lift forces,” said aeronautical engineer Lorena Barba of George Washington University. Barba authored a study published in Physics of Fluids called The Lift and Wakes of Flying Snakes.

Treehugger reported that researchers are trying to understand how the snakes fly in order to solve mechanical problems in the real world. The team used computational fluid dynamics to study the aerodynamics of the snakes.

"It’s not wild to think that our understanding of the fluid mechanics of this particular shape could lead us to, for example, design a different type of air flow that is ideal for energy harvesting, or a wind turbine – or who knows,” said Barba. "You find applications in unexpected places."

“We hope to learn the solutions that nature has found for flight at small scales- insects, birds and animal gliders are all quite small compared to aeroplanes,” said Barba.