Meeting Abstract

43.6  Monday, Jan. 5  The aerodynamic body drag of Drosophila melanogaster PEEK, M.Y.*; DICKSON, W.B.; DICKINSON, M.H.; California Institute of Technology; California Institute of Technology; California Institute of Technology martin@caltech.edu

Research in Drosophila melanogaster aerodynamics has provided key insights in understanding how small insects fly. In many previous studies, dynamically-scaled models of flapping wings have helped elucidate aerodynamic mechanisms for hovering and forward flight. We extend this type of experiment to investigate the aerodynamics of a fly body. We use a dynamically-scaled model of a female fly mounted on a robotic platform in a mineral oil tank to measure forces and torques as a function of Reynolds number and body angle. We find that lift and drag vary as simple trigonometric functions. During flight, flies typically maintain a body pitch angle between 20 and 80 degrees. Within this range, addition of model legs fixed in flight orientation significantly reduces pitching torque about the center of mass with little effect on drag. We will assess the magnitude of the forces and torques required to maintain an equilibrium flight posture.