ArticleJournal of the Royal Society, Interface2014
Hummingbird wing efficacy depends on aspect ratio and compares with helicopter rotors.
Article in Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 113 citations in OpenAlex.
- Nightjars trade off cruising speed efficiency for hovering capabilities and link upstroke thrust production with restricted wing folding.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Effects of shapes and kinematics of hovering flapping wings on aerodynamic forces and vortex structures.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Experimental study into the effects of pitch and coning angles on the flight performance of the natural samara.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- The spatiotemporal richness of hummingbird wing deformations.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- Article
- Aspect Ratio Effects on the Aerodynamic Performance of a Biomimetic Hummingbird Wing in Flapping.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Dynamic experimental rigs for investigation of insect wing aerodynamics.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2022Review
- The evolution of darker wings in seabirds in relation to temperature-dependent flight efficiency.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2021Article
- Article
- Birds repurpose the role of drag and lift to take off and land.Nature communications · 2019Article
- Range of motion in the avian wing is strongly associated with flight behavior and body mass.Science advances · 2019Article
- A Bird's-Eye View of Regulatory, Animal Care, and Training Considerations Regarding Avian Flight Research.Comparative medicine · 2019Review
- Article
- Biomechanics of hover performance in Neotropical hummingbirds versus bats.Science advances · 2018Article
- Hovering hummingbird wing aerodynamics during the annual cycle. II. Implications of wing feather moult.Royal Society open science · 2018Article
- Sexual dimorphism in the Arachnid orders.PeerJ · 2018Article
- The biomechanical origin of extreme wing allometry in hummingbirds.Nature communications · 2017Article
- Hovering hummingbird wing aerodynamics during the annual cycle. I. Complete wing.Royal Society open science · 2017Article
- The role of the leading edge vortex in lift augmentation of steadily revolving wings: a change in perspective.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2017Review
- How birds direct impulse to minimize the energetic cost of foraging flight.Science advances · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Hummingbirds are the only birds that can sustain hovering. This unique flight behaviour comes, however, at high energetic cost. Based on helicopter and aeroplane design theory, we expect that hummingbird wing aspect ratio (AR), which ranges from about 3.0 to 4.5, determines aerodynamic efficacy. Previous quasi-steady experiments with a wing spinner set-up provide no support for this prediction. To test this more carefully, we compare the quasi-steady hover performance of 26 wings, from 12 hummingbird taxa. We spun the wings at angular velocities and angles of attack that are representative for every species and measured lift and torque more precisely. The power (aerodynamic torque × angular velocity) required to lift weight depends on aerodynamic efficacy, which is measured by the power factor. Our comparative analysis shows that AR has a modest influence on lift and drag forces, as reported earlier, but interspecific differences in power factor are large. During the downstroke, the power required to hover decreases for larger AR wings at the angles of attack at which hummingbirds flap their wings (p < 0.05). Quantitative flow visualization demonstrates that variation in hover power among hummingbird wings is driven by similar stable leading edge vortices that delay stall during the down- and upstroke. A side-by-side aerodynamic performance comparison of hummingbird wings and an advanced micro helicopter rotor shows that they are remarkably similar.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.