Researchers at the Lentink Mechanical Engineering Lab at Stanford University have been studying the way hummingbirds are able to hover. Using controlled studies, the team has devised a pressure-sensitive flight chamber that helps to explain the nimble, aerobatic motion of a hummingbird’s wings during flight, as shown in this fascinating video by bioGraphic.
Although scientists have studied hummingbirds for centuries, the secrets of the birds’ sustained hovering ability have remained a mystery…Researchers at Stanford’s Lentink Mechanical Engineering Lab have invented a device—a flight chamber outfitted with high-speed video equipment and ultra-sensitive pressure plates—that may finally explain how hummingbirds achieve their astounding aerial feats. By measuring the forces generated by a hummingbird’s individual wing beats, the scientists have developed the most accurate and detailed model yet of the physics involved in the hummingbird hover.