Flying Snakes: The Secret to Their Incredible Gliding Abilities

  • Thread starter Thread starter mugaliens
  • Start date Start date
AI Thread Summary
Flying snakes can achieve impressive horizontal distances, gliding 80 feet from a 50-foot height, indicating a mechanism that allows for significant forward motion rather than just leaping. Their unique rib cage structure and slithering motion enable them to steer effectively while in the air. The snakes also demonstrate a flaring behavior before landing, which may aid in touchdown. The glide ratio of these snakes surpasses 1:1, showcasing their remarkable adaptation despite lacking wings or limbs. Further research, including wind tunnel analysis, could provide deeper insights into their flight mechanics.
mugaliens
Messages
196
Reaction score
1
http://news.yahoo.com/s//livescience/20101123/sc_livescience/flyingsnakessecretrevealed/" .

These little guys managed 80' horizontal from a 50' high platform. Furthermore, the video clearly shows their fall flattens out to some serious forward motion, so they're definitely not just leaping that far.

The mechanism appears fairly straitforward, with a self-flattened rib cage angled nearly sideways into the apparent wind, and using both its tail as well as the length of each back and forth slithering movement for steerage.

It even flares before landing!

I wonder how well it would fare from 200' up?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Physics news on Phys.org
Would be nice to do some wind tunnel analysis on it! Some shots with smoke flow over it would be great too.
 
The touchdown must be some headache though.
 
viscousflow said:
Would be nice to do some wind tunnel analysis on it! Some shots with smoke flow over it would be great too.

If he can launch them into a slight headwind, and provided he has a large enough clear area upwind, it might be possible to set up smoke ribbons that would last for 80 feet. Otherwise, good luck on finding a 50' high wind tunnel willing to donate time to research flying snakes.

Interestingly, with 50' vertical and 80' horizontal, that's better than a 1:1 glide ratio. Not bad for an animal that not only doesn't have wings, but doesn't even have any arms or legs!

As for us humans: "The longest verified WiSBASE jump is 5.8 km (3.6 mi) by Dean Potter[7] on August, 2009. Potter jumped from Eiger and had spent 2 minutes and 50 seconds in flight, covering 7,900 ft (2.4 km) of altitude." - http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/2009/12/best-of-adventure/dean-potter"

That's 5.8 km horizontal to 2.4 km veritcal, for a glide ratio of 2.42.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Thread 'Never think never for an improbable event'

Pilot training is critical to safe flying. I watched the following video regarding the crash of TAM 402 (31 October 1996), which crashed into a Sao Paolo neighorbood about 25 seconds after takeoff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAM_Transportes_A%C3%A9reos_Regionais_Flight_402 The pilots were never trained to handle such an event (the airline had asked the manufacturer about training for this event), since it was considered too improbable (so rare) by the manufacturer. There was no...
View full post »

Thread 'Space Stuff and Launch Info'

Due to the constant never ending supply of "cool stuff" happening in Aerospace these days I'm creating this thread to consolidate posts every time something new comes along. Please feel free to add random information if its relevant. So to start things off here is the SpaceX Dragon launch coming up shortly, I'll be following up afterwards to see how it all goes. :smile: https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacex/
View full post »

Hot Threads

Recent Insights

Back
Top