Four wings are better than two – if you know how to use them

“I’ve been repeatedly struck by how inefficient dragonflies seem to be when they fly and I wondered whether they were using any additional tricks to become more efficient,” said Jim Usherwood, Wellcome Trust funded researcher at the Royal Veterinary College and co-author on the paper.

In order to hover a dragonfly, just like a helicopter, has to push air downwards – this is referred to as the ‘wake’ or ‘downwash’. Any air motion that isn’t downward fails to support the body and is wasteful. This study shows that dragonflies are able to use their lower wings to recover energy wasted in side to side air motion in the wake – if they flap their wings at right time.

“By working with Fritz-Olaf Lehmann, who has been developing flapping robots, we were able to simulate dragonfly flight and measure the aerodynamic forces. We found that two pairs of wings can allow the dragonfly to produce higher forces, allowing acceleration and climbing, whilst the lower wings are able to reduce energy wasted if the wings flap at the right time,” said Usherwood.

Working with robot dragonflies allowed the researchers to look at what would happen if the front and back wings flapped with different timings – not possible with real dragonflies. Whilst most of the flapping timings were less efficient than hovering with one pair of wings, the scientists discovered that there were some instances when flapping with two pairs of wings was more efficient because it required less power to lift the same weight as just one pair of wings.

The findings, published today in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, could also be used to improve the development of micro air vehicles.