Foundation of a New Investigation of Natural Flight Characteristics and Theory

This paper proposes a model to describe flapping flight that allows macro-aerodynamic principles to be used to evaluate lift forces produced by an insect in hover. The foremost of these principles in spanwise velocity and acceleration induced by the rotational oscillations of the wing. These velocities and accelerations are proposed to act across the cambered wing in span to produce sufficient lift on both the upstroke and the downstroke to support more than four times the insect\u27s weight. The model predicts the approximate force available to an insect and allows logical refinements that mirror actual insect wing motions during hovering flight