Developing animals are particularly vulnerable to predation. Hence, precocial young of many taxa develop predator escape performance that rivals that of adults. Ontogenetically unique among vertebrates, birds transition from hind limb to forelimb dependence for escape behaviours, so developmental investment for immediate gains in running performance may impair flight performance later. Here, in...

Uniformitarian approaches to the evolution of terrestrial locomotor physiology and animal flight performance have generally presupposed the constancy of atmospheric composition. Recent geophysical data as well as theoretical models suggest that, to the contrary, both oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations have changed dramatically during defining periods of metazoan evolution. Hyperoxia in th...

The Hy-V project will conduct the first-ever mode-transition flight-test for a dual-mode hypersonic scramjet, which will occur at approximately 90,000 feet onboard a sounding rocket. At altitude, atmospheric conditions and inlet flow speed will match the flow conditions simulated in the UVA Aerospace Research Laboratory (ARL) hypersonic wind tunnel. Geometric similarity between the wind tunnel ...

A fundamental issue in physiology and behavior is underlie major behavioral shifts in organisms as they transitions are common in nature and include the age-related switch from nest/hive work to foraging in social insects such as honey bees (understanding the functional and genetic mechanisms that adopt new environments or life history tactics. Such). Because of their experimental Apis mellifer...

Natural laminar flow technology can significantly reduce aircraft aerodynamic drag and has excellent technical appeal for transport development with high efficiency. Accurately efficiently predicting the laminar-to-turbulent transition revealing maintenance mechanism of in a aircraft’s flight environment are significant developing natural wings. In this research, we carry out experiments differ...

Monocopters are nature-inspired, single-wing, rotating aerial vehicles that fly by spinning their entire body. Meanwhile, bicopters twin propeller-based control attitude changing the direction of thrust from motors using two servos. In this paper, we present a novel single-wing vehicle, which can in both monocopter and bicopter modes. To enhance its maneuverability while still being air, platfo...