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BIOPHYSICS

Stable gliding by undulating snakes

Nature Physics volume 16, pages 905–906 (2020)Cite this article

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Everybody who has ever made a paper airplane and been disappointed as it spins out of control, crashing to the ground, knows how tricky achieving suitable trim and stability for gliding can be. But, somehow, wiggling flying snakes glide without tumbling.

Where should we look for inspiration on how to achieve stability in glides? Maybe in some extreme aerial specialist like the albatross, swift or falcon? Perhaps, but it appears that very competent gliding birds such as the falcon or owl are — at least following standard engineering conventions — highly unstable1, in part due to the conflicting demands of drag minimization2. This turns out to be fine for birds, because they are very capable of rapid sensing, processing and actuation. We could instead turn to plant seeds that achieve stable glides with zero feedback and control; but these have characteristically large, specialized and dedicated aerodynamic surfaces, whether as translating or auto-rotating aerofoils, or as parachuting plumes. Another — perhaps surprising — option, one pursued by Isaac Yeaton and co-authors, is flying snakes. Now, writing in Nature Physics3, they look at how this type of snake achieves — for want of a better term — some form of ‘functional’ stability in glides.

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Fig. 1: Undulation in flying snakes.

References

  1. Durston, N. E. Quantifying the Flight Stability of Free-Gliding Birds of Prey. PhD Thesis, Univ. Bristol (2019); https://go.nature.com/2BEXZ8U

  2. Usherwood, J. R. et al. J. Exp. Biol. 223, 214809 (2020).

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  3. Yeaton, I. et al. Nat. Phys. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-0935-4 (2020).

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  1. The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, London, United Kingdom

    Jim Usherwood

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  1. Jim Usherwood
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Correspondence to Jim Usherwood.

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Usherwood, J. Stable gliding by undulating snakes. Nat. Phys. 16, 905–906 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-0959-9

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