GEARBOXES AND JET ENGINES IN NATURE

Just about everyone interested in motor vehicles knows the importance of gearboxes and jet engines. Few, however, are aware that there are gearboxes and jet engines in nature, which possess designs far superior to those employed by man.

Gearboxes allow you to change gears in the vehicle so that the motor is used most efficiently. Natural gearboxes work along the same principles as those in cars. Flies, for example, use a natural gearbox that provides three-speed gearshift connected to its wings. Thanks to this system, a fly can instantaneously accelerate or slow down by flapping its wings at the desired speed while in the air. 47

In cars, at least four gears are used to transmit the power from the engine to the wheels. It is possible to drive smoothly only when the gears are used in succession, from low gear to high, and back again. Instead of gears in cars, which are heavy and take up a lot of room, flies have a mechanism that takes up only a few cubic millimeters. Thanks to their far more functional mechanism, flies can beat their wings with ease.

The squid, octopus and nautilus employ a propellant force similar to the principle used by jet engines. To understand just how effective this force is, consider that the species of squid known as Loligo vulgaris can travel in the water at speeds up to 32 kilometers [20 miles] an hour. 48

A jet engine takes in air from one end and expels it from the other at a much greater speed. The jet engines in vertical take-off aircraft like the Harrier have nozzles to direct the exhaust down. Thanks to this system, the Harrier can land and take off vertically. After takeoff, the nozzles are pointed backwards, so that the aircraft flies forwards. The squid use a form of propulsion system similar to jet planes. A squid's body contains two open spaces like pockets. Water taken in from them is drawn into a powerful elastic bag of contracting muscles. In this bag is a backward-pointing nozzle. The muscles contract, expelling water out of that nozzle at high speed. The animal can reach speeds of up to 32 km (20 miles)an hour to flee predators, sometimes even leaping out of the water and onto the decks of ships. (Phil Gates, Wild Technology, 38.)

When threatened by a starfish, the scallop suddenly closes the two halves of its shell. It thus expels a quantity of water in such a way as to set up jet propulsion and forces itself forward. Known by its scientific name of Ecballium elaterium, the squirting cucumber disperses its fruit’s seeds in a sudden explosion. As the fruit ripens, it fills with a slimy juice, which gradually creates pressure. Through the buildup of internal pressure, it then propels its seeds with an initial velocity of 56 km (35 miles) per hour. (Helmut Tributsch, How Life Learned to Live, Cambridge: MITPress, 1982, 59.)

The nautilus, an incomparable example in this regard, resembles an octopus and may be compared to a ship with a jet engine. It takes water in through a tube beneath its head and then shoots the water out. While the water travels in one direction, the nautilus is propelled in the other.

Another feature makes scientists envious of these creatures: Their natural jet engines remain impervious to the high pressure of the deep sea. Moreover, the systems that let them move are both silent and extremely light. In fact, the nautilus’ superior design served as a model for submarines.

100-Million-Year-Old Technology Under the Sea

When a submarine fills its ballast tanks with water, the ship becomes heavier than water and sinks toward the bottom. If water in the tanks is emptied out by means of compressed air, then the submarine surfaces. The nautilus employs the same technique. In its body there is a 19-cm (7.48 in) spiral organ rather like a snail’s shell, inside which are 38 interconnected “diving” chambers. To empty out the water; it also needs compressed air—but where does the nautilus find the air it needs?

By biochemical means, the nautilus produces a special gas in its body and transfers this gas to the chambers, expelling water from them to regulate its buoyancy. This allows the nautilus to dive or surface when hunting or chased by predators.

In order to dive or surface, submarines employ special compartments that serve the same purpose as those in the nautilus. When these compartments (tanks) are filled with air, the submarine floats. When the air is replaced with water, it sinks. The number of tanks that are filled with water determines the underwater depth at which the submarine runs.

A submarine can only venture safely to a depth of about 400 meters (1,310 feet), whereas the nautilus can easily descend to a depth of 450 meters (1,500 feet). 49

Such a depth is very dangerous to many living things. But despite this, the nautilus remains unaffected, its shell is not crushed by the pressure and its body suffers no harm.

Nautilus

Another very important point needs to be considered here. The nautilus has possessed this system, which can withstand the pressure at some 450 meters, since the day it was created. How can it have designed this special structure all by itself? On its own, could the nautilus have developed the gas to obtain the necessary compressed air to empty out the water in its shell? It is definitely impossible for the creature to know how to create the chemical reaction to produce gas, much less build the structures in its body necessary to bring that chemical reaction about, nor to structure a shell capable of withstanding tons of water pressure.

This superior design is the work of God, Who flawlessly created everything, with no prior models. God’s title of al-Badi’ (the Innovative Creator), is revealed in the Qur’an:

He is the Originator of the heavens and the Earth... (Qur'an, 6: 101)

Submarines’ diving techniques resemble those of fish, which are able to control their relative density in order to rise or dive in the water. In their bodies, bony fish have a swim bladder that gives them their buoyancy. When air is added to the swim bladder, by diffusion through the blood vessels in the bladder walls, the fish becomes less dense overall;when air is removed the fish becomes more dense.  By changing the volume of air in the bladder, the fish’s density can be made equal to that of the surrounding water at a given depth.

The depth of a submarine in water is adjusted by special command systems, the product of human intelligence, after many years of engineering research. No rational person can claim that these devices came about by chance.

This 100-million-year-old nautilus fossil is proof that the animal never underwent evolution. God created the creature in an instant, and with all its flawless desing.

USING WAVES AND VIBRATIONS

Sound moves through air and water in the form of waves, which bounce back if they strike an object. If you possess the necessary technology and knowledge, these rebounding waves can provide a great deal of information about the body they encountered, such as its distance from the source, its size, and the direction and speed of its motion.

This technology to locate objects by means of sound and pressure waves was developed in the 20th century, actually for military purposes. But today, it is also used to locate sunken ships and for mapping the ocean floor. However, millions of years ago, long before man discovered this technology, living things in nature were using the sound waves they spread around them in order to survive.

Dolphins, bats, fish and moths have all possessed this system, known as sonar, ever since they were created. What is more, their systems are much more sensitive and functional than those employed by human beings today.

Bats’ Sonar Goes Far Beyond the Bounds of Human Technology

The U.S. Defense Department set out to implement principles of bat sonar in its own system of sonar, an indispensable method for locating submarines under the surface of the sea. According to a report in Science, one of America’s best-known magazines, the Defense Department set aside a special allocation to pay for this project.

With their highly developed radar equipment, the AWACS (Airborne Warning And Control System) in Boeing 767 jets is used for early warning and target control purposes. AWACS, effective in the air and on land, can identify ships on the surface only and fails when it comes to submarines under the water (which are invisible to AWACS). (Bezen Çetin, "Hava Savunma Sistemleri," (Air Defense Systems)Bilim ve Teknik, Jan. 1995, 33.)

It has long been known that bats use their sonar system to find their way around in the pitch dark. Recently, researchers have uncovered new secrets of how they do it. According to their research, the brown insectivorous bat, Eptesicus fuscus, can process two million overlapping echoes a second. Furthermore, it can perceive these echoes with a resolution of only 0.3 millimeters (1/80th of an inch). According to these figures, bat's sonar is three times more sensitive than its man-made equivalent. 50

Bats' sonar navigational skills teach us a great deal about flying in the dark. Research carried out with infrared thermal imaging cameras and ultrasound detectors afforded considerable information about how bats fly in search of prey at night.

Bats can seize an insect from mid-air as the insect rises from the grass. Some bats even plunge into bushes to capture their prey. It’s no easy task to seize an insect buzzing in the air using only reflected sound waves. But if you consider that the insect is among the bushes, and sound waves bounce back from all the leaves surrounding it, you will grasp what an impressive task the bat actually performs.

In a situation like that, bats reduce their sonar squeals, to prevent their becoming confused by echoes from the surrounding vegetation. Yet by itself, this tactic isn’t enough to enable bats to perceive the objects individually, because they also need to distinguish the arrival time and direction of the overlapping echoes. 51

Bats also use their sonar when flying over water to drink, and in some cases, to capture prey from the ground. Their expert maneuverability can best be seen when one bat chases another. Understanding how they can do this will let us produce a wide range of technological products, especially equipment for sonar navigation and detection. Moreover, bats’ broad-band sonar system is also imitated today in mine-sweeping technology. 52

As we have seen, the properties of living things benefit us in a very large number of ways. In one verse, God draws attention to the uses in animals:

And there is certainly a lesson for you in your livestock. We give you to drink from what is in their bellies and there are many ways in which you benefit from them... (Qur’an, 23: 21)

In identifying underwater targets, the Greater Bulldog Bat(Noctilio leporinusi) is far superior to AWACS. This bat’s sonar system enables it to hunt fish. It’s no exaggeration to think of the bat as a kind of advanced warplane with early warning capabilities. When it locates a fish near the surface of the water, it goes into a dive. On the large feet of the bat, which are ideally designed for seizing fish, there are super sharp, powerful claws. As it approaches its prey, the bat drops its feet below the water, where its thin claws meet no water resistance. These large, sharp and pointed claws give the bat a great advantage when it comes to gripping its prey. (“More about bat echolocation;” http://www.szgdocent.org/resource/ff/f-bateco.htm)

Some moth species are able to confuse the bats’ detection system by means of the high-pitched squeaks they emit. If the bat can't locate the moth, it’s unable to catch it. (Phil Gates, Wild Technology, 53.) The EA-6B Prowler aircraft currently used by the U.S. military imitate these moths’ tactics. It monitors the electromagnetic spectrum and actively denies an adversary the use of radar and communications. (“EA-6B Prowler;” http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ systems/ aircraft/ea-6.htm)

Dolphin Sound Waves and Sonar Technology

From a special organ known as the melon in its head, a dolphin can sometimes produce as many as 1,200 clicks a second. Simply by moving its head, this creature is able to transmit the waves in the direction it wishes. When the sound waves strike an object, they are reflected and return to the dolphin. The echoes reflected from the object pass through the dolphin's lower jaw to the middle ear, and from there to the brain. Thanks to the enormous speed at which these data are interpreted, very accurate and sensitive information is obtained. The echoes let the dolphin determine the direction of movement, speed and size of the object that reflects them. 53

The dolphin sonar is so sensitive that it can even identify one single fish from among an entire shoal. 54 It can also distinguish between two separate metal coins, three kilometers away in the pitch dark. 55

In the present day, the instrument known as SONAR 56 is used to identify targets and their directions for ships and submarines. Sonar works on exactly the same principle as that employed by the dolphin.

At Yale University, a robot was developed to be used for exploring new environments. An  electrical engineering professor Roman Kuc equipped the robot with a sonar system imitating the one used by dolphins. Professor Kuc, who spent 10 years working on ultrasound sensors and robotics research, admitted, “We decided to take a closer look at how echolocation is used in nature to see if we might be missing something.” 57

“Glory be to Him Who has the Dominion of all things in His Hand. To Him you will be returned.” (Qur’an,36:83)

Scientists and engineers have built several robots based on the sonar designs in nature. One of these, the robot named “koala,” constructed by the K-Team Company, has six sonar units and was designed for remote-control exploration purposes.

Imagine that someone told you that under the sea, sound waves travel at 1,500 meters a second; then asked you to calculate, if your submarine sent out sound waves that came back in four seconds’ time, how far away was the object that reflected them.

You would calculate that you were three kilometers away. Dolphins are also capable of comfortably performing similar calculations, but they know neither the speed at which their sound waves travel through the water, nor how to multiply and divide. They don’t carry out any of these functions; all the animals do is behave the way God inspires them.

Evolutionists claim that dolphins’ sonar emerged as the result of a series of changes caused by different factors. (“National Geographic TV’s Undersea Fairy Tales; ”www.darwinism-watch.com/nat_geo_tv_undersea_tales.php) This is as senseless and meaningless as claiming that wind or earth tremors brought together thousands of pieces of electrical equipment on a shelf and formed a sonar circuit.

Operators trained to interpret the data sit at the consoles of the most developed sonar systems. Yet dolphins, which evolutionists maintain are more primitive than man, have no need of such operators.

Sonar Helps the Visually Impaired

As scientific research advances, we are discovering astonishing abilities in living things that offer solutions to problems in many areas of daily life, from the workplace to our hospitals. Darcy Winslow, General Manager of Environmental Business Opportunities for Nike, expresses this truth:

The extent to which the natural world can provide technological solutions for the types of product performance characteristics we must provide are virtually unlimited. Biomimicry still requires exploration, innovation and creativity, but by thinking like or working with a biologist, we must learn to ask a different set of questions and look to nature for inspiration and learning opportunities. 58

Many firms are now following a strategy that parallels the one that Winslow set out. It is now possible to see electronic and mechanical engineers working together with biologists.

Already, engineers influenced by bat's sonar have mounted a small sonar unit onto a pair of glasses. After a period of familiarization with the glasses, visually handicapped people are now able to avoid obstacles and even ride bicycles. Still, the system’s designers stress that it will never replace human vision eye or be as functional as that of the bat.

It’s of course impossible for flawless features like this, which even experts have difficulties in replicating, to have appeared by chance. We must not forget that what we refer to here as “features” are actually complex, interconnected systems. The absence or breakdown of only one component means that the whole system fails to work. For example, if bats sent out sound waves but couldn’t interpret the echoes reflected back, they would in fact have no echolocation system at all.

In scientific literature, the flawless and complete design that living things display is known as “irreducible complexity.” In other words, certain designs become meaningless and functionless if reduced down to a simpler form. Irreducible complexity in all organisms and their systems demolishes the fundamental idea of the theory of evolution, according to which organisms advance gradually, from the simple towards the complex. If a system can serve no purpose before it reaches its final form, there is no logical reason for it to maintain its existence over millions of years, while it refines and completes itself. A species can survive down the generations only if all its systems are present. No components of a system can afford the luxury of hoping to complete their alleged evolution over time. This clearly proves that when living things first appeared on Earth, they were created with all their structures developed and fully formed, as they are today.

God brought animals and all other living things into being through His superior creation. News of this creation is given in a verse:

And He created livestock. There is warmth for you in them, and various uses and some you eat. (Qur’an, 16: 5)

The Superior Design in the Bat Is Showing Us to Make Our Roads Safer

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh developed a robot that used its smart ears to find its way by means of echolocation, just like a bat. Jose Carmena, of the university’s department of informatics, and his colleagues named this invention “RoBat.” The RoBat was equipped with a central sound source, serving the same function as a bat’s mouth, and two fixed receivers at a distance apart comparable to a bat's ears.

In order to make the best use of echoes, other features of the bat were also borne in mind when designing the RoBat. Bats move their ears to detect interference patterns in the echoes and thus, can easily avoid obstacles in front of them, navigate and hunt down preys. Like bats, the RoBat was also equipped with smart acoustic sensors to make its mechanism as flawless as possible.

Thanks to such nature-inspired sound sensors, it is hoped that one day our roads will be much safer.

In fact, such car manufacturers as Mercedes and BMW already use ultrasonic sensors to help drivers reverse. Thanks to them, the driver is alerted to how close he is to a car or other obstruction behind him. 59

A Fish’s Detector Against Pollution

The West African elephant nose fish (Gnathonemus petersii) lives in 27oC (80oF) muddy waters of Nigeria. This 10 cm (3.9 in) fish uses its eyes very little in the muddy water. It finds its way by means of the electrical signals constantly given off by muscles in its tail. Under normal circumstances, it emits 300-500 signals a minute. As the pollution levels rise, however, the number of signals emitted per minute can exceed 1,000.

Detectors that make use of elephant nose fish are used to measure pollution levels in the British city of Bournemouth. A water company in the city gave specimens of water from the River Stour to be checked by 20 elephant nose fish. Each fish lives in an aquarium filled with water from the river. The receptor signals in the aquarium are forwarded to computers to which they are linked. If the water is polluted the increased numbers of signals emitted by the fish are identified, and the alarm signal is given by means of the computer. 60

The electric eel Electrophorus electricus lives in the Amazon. Two-thirds of its two-meter long body is covered in 5,000 to 6,000 electricity-producing disc-like plates that produce 550 V / 2 A of electricity. The shock is sufficient to stun fish up to two meters away. (“Iste Doga,” Bilim ve Teknik, Nov. 1985, 11.)

Scientists imitate the electric eel’s defense mechanism, using the same principle as it employs today. That the eel can release such a strong discharge of electricity is truly a miracle of creation. It’s out of the question for this exceedingly complex system involved to have come about in stages: If the fish’s electricity production fails to function completely, it will give it no advantage. In other words, every part of the system must have been created flawlessly and at the same time.

You can use electrical signals to locate an object or for communications, but need to have accumulated scientific technology to do so. Even today, very few countries have reached that level. Yet some electric eels possess organic radar around their bodies that give off electrical signals that bounce back from its surroundings, letting the animal obtain information about the size, speed and motion of the objects around it. The eel can also obtain information about the gender and maturity of another electric eel, and then invite it to mate or frighten it off. (W. M. Westby, "Les poissons électriques se parlent par décharges," Science et Vie, no. 798, Mar. 1984) Considering the complicated nature of our radar and communications systems, we can better understand the marvelous creation within the eel’s body.

The glass knife fish (Eigenmannia virescens) locates objects in much the same way as humans calculate distance. We calculate distance according to the distance between sound waves and the time waves from the object take to reach our ear. This takes place in a little as 1/15,000 second. Instead of the sound waves, however, the glass knife fish emits electrical signals and detects perturbations in the self-generated electric field due to nearby objects. As California University researchers G. Rose and W. Heilingenberg discovered, the fish can perform these calculations in 400 billionths of a second, like a super-computer. (“Harika Balik,” (Wonderful Fish), Hakan Durmus, Bilim ve Teknik, Mar. 1991, 43)

LIVING THINGS AND FLIGHT TECHNOLOGY

Which is the most flawless, efficient flying machine? A Skorsky helicopter, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, or an F-16 fighter?

The words, beginning a scientific article about birds in Reader's Digest, provide an answer to that question, stating that compared to birds, a marvel of aerodynamics, even the most advanced aircraft are nothing more than crude copies. 61

Birds are perfect flying machines. Any vehicle needs to be fairly light in order to fly. This applies right down to the screws and bolts used to attach the wings. This explains why airplane manufacturers always try to use special materials that are light but also strong and resistant to blows. But despite all the efforts expended toward this goal, we humans are nowhere near birds in this field. Have you ever seen a bird explode or fall apart in mid-air? Or a bird lose a wing because the connections to its body have become weakened?

Planes fly much faster than birds, but give off a lot of heat during flight. In a bird's body, however, the air circulation works just like a cooling system. It is therefore impossible to hit a bird with a heat-seeking missile as one can with a plane.

In terms of flexibility and maneuverability, birds are far superior to planes. A bird’s neck allows its beak to reach any part of the body, so that the bird is easily able to maintain its feathers, the most important component of its flight. During flight, the neck also establishes balance, as is the case with the flamingo. Progress made in aeronautics over the past century led to the nose of Concorde, which was able to swivel up and down—a design actually copied from dolphins.

The flap of a plane (the movable surface attached to the rear edge of the wing that is used to create lift or drag) can't repair itself when damaged or even replace itself. Feathers, however, which serve the same function for birds, can do so, thanks to the impeccable system God gave them.

The flawless designs in birds have an enormous influence on the development of aviation. Indeed, the Wright brothers, regarded as the inventors of the airplane, used the vulture wing as a model when building the wings of their Kitty Hawk plane. 62

Try to tear a feather apart, and you’ll meet considerable resistance, because filaments of the feathers are closely bound together by small hooks known as barbicels. A split feather even has the power to repair itself. Just rubbing a feather a few times “with the grain” lets these tiny hooks grip themselves together once again.

Hollow bones, powerful chest muscles to move those bones, feathers with properties that enable them to remain in the air, aerodynamic wings, a metabolism that meets high energy needs… All these features, which clearly show that birds are the product of design, also give them extraordinary abilities in the air.

Birds are more advanced than planes in a great many other regards. Birds such as the raven and dove can turn somersaults in the air, and hummingbirds can remain suspended in flight. They can change their minds in flight and suddenly alight on a branch. No airplane can perform such maneuvers.

Even before the airplane had been discovered, the flawless design employed by birds in order to fly influenced a great many inventors. As is recorded in early silent movies, in the 19th century some individuals actually tied homemade wings onto their arms and hurled themselves into space, trying to imitate the movements of birds. Predictably, it did not take them long to realize that wings alone were not enough to permit them to fly.

Since then, mankind has made considerable progress in terms of scientific techniques, and research and development. Yet some are still making claims at least as hollow and irrational as those early inventors. In their view, reptiles turned into birds gradually, stage by stage. This imaginary mechanism of gradual evolution has no foundation to support it. Birds possess a totally different structure from land-dwelling creatures. Their bone and muscle structure, feathers, aerodynamic wings and metabolisms bear not the slightest similarity to those of reptiles, 63 and the alleged gradual evolution model cannot account for even one of their bodily mechanisms.

The cobra maneuver performed by Russian pilot Victor Pougatchev in his Su-27 jet has gone down in the history of aviation. The maneuver allowed Pougatchev to halt his plane in the air for a moment, causing an enemy plane to pass underneath. ("Yeni Avcı Uçakları:Pougatchev'in Kobraları," (New Hunter Planes: Pougatchev's Cobras) Asst. Prof. Selcuk Aslan, Bilim ve Teknik, Mar. 1990, 57-58.) Yet Pougatchev’s maneuver is as nothing compared to what the hummingbird does.

Birds’ bodies are specially designed for flight. A glance at a bird’s neck is sufficient to illustrate this. A sparrow’s consists of 14 vertebrae, the same number as in the giraffe. This allows the bird to easily maintain its balance in the air, to hunt, and to care for its feathers.

Don't you see that everyone in the heavens and earth glorifies God, as do the birds with their outspread wings? (Qur'an, 24: 41)

The New Objective in Aeronautics: A Wing that Changes Shape According to Prevailing Conditions

As they fly, birds can use their wings in the most efficient way possible, automatically changing to deal with factors like temperature and wind. Currently, companies engaged in airplane technology are actively seeking to develop designs that make use of these features.

NASA, Boeing and the U.S. Air Force have designed a flexible wing, made of glass fibers, that can change its shape according to data from a computer inside the plane. This computer will also be able to process data from measuring equipment regarding flight conditions such as temperature, wind force, etc. 64

Birds’ wing structures are a marvel of design. By their masterful use of the exact same wing structure, a bird can manage to fly in heat or cold, in windy or still conditions. This feature attracted scientists’ attention and led them to try to produce a wing that could change shape according to changing conditions. The picture shows a cross-section of a wing designed with that purpose in mind.

Airbus, another firm working in this field, is trying to build adaptive wings that can change shape according to prevailing conditions, in order to reduce fuel consumption as much as possible. 65

In short, birds’ wing structures are literally a marvel of design. For many years, their matchless ability in flying has been a source of inspiration for engineers. God has equipped these creatures in the best possible manner for flight. He draws attention to them in the following verse:

Haven't they looked at the birds above them, with wings outspread and folded back? Nothing holds them up but the All-Merciful. He sees all things. (Qur’an, 67: 19)

Owls silently glide at night to catch their prey unawares, then suddenly swoop down. According to the findings of researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia, an owl’s flight feathers—unlike most birds, the flight feathers of whose have a sharp, clean edge—have soft fringes that decrease the turbulence, and thus the noise, of air as it flows over wing. Military designers hope that stealth airplanes can be made even stealthier by imitating the owl’s wings. It is hoped that planes now invisible to radar will be completely silent. (Robin Meadows, "Designs from Life," Zooger, July/August 1999.)

How Birds’ Wings Are Shaping Flight Technology

The study of bird flight has led to important changes in the structure of airplane wings.

One of the first planes to make use of these changes was the American F-111 fighter. F-111 did not have control surfaces such as ailerons and flaps, which are used to control movements of the aircraft. Instead, just as birds do, the fighter could sweep its wings. This allowed it to remain balanced even while turning. 66

The shape of birds’ wings is the determining factor in their ability to fly. Wings of fast-flying birds like the falcon, hawk, and swallow are long, narrow and pointed—features that have served as a guide to flight engineers. ("Kusursuz Ucus Makineleri" (Perfect Flight Machines), Bilim ve Teknik, 23.)

For high-speed flight, the most advantageous wing shape is one swept back. On the other hand, straight wings allow greater lift, important for takeoff and landing. The only way of benefiting from both these features is to construct variable-sweep wings, capable of moving backward and forward. (Clive Gifford,Her Yonuyle Ucaklar, (Cutaway Planes) TUBITAK,  4th ed.,   January 1999, 24.)  Fighters such as the Tornado and F-111 have just such wings, the sweep of which can be changed in flight. This design, the result of long study, has been present in birds since the moment of their creation. Inspired by bird bones—which are hollow, making them very light—the wings of modern planes are designed to be hollow also.

The albatross has long wings with a large surface area, allowing the bird to fly long distances without flapping its wings. Gliders designed along the lines of the albatross wing are thus able to remain in the air for long periods of time without the need for a propeller.

During takeoff and landing, birds prefer to face into the wind so that they expend less energy. Airport runways are also sited to face prevailing winds, so that planes expend less energy during takeoff.

In Aviation Research, the Vulture’s Feathers Show the Way

During a plane’s flight, pressure changes at the wing’s edge can form small vortexes—air currents at the edges of the wings that can impede flight performance.

Aviation research studies have revealed that when vultures fly, they open their quill feathers—the large feathers at the edge of the wing—like the fingers of a hand. From this observation, researchers thought of taking it as a model to make small metal ailerons and test them in flight. Using these, they hoped it would be possible to reduce the vortexes’ unwelcome effects on a plane by setting up a series of smaller vortexes to replace the large ones that had previously been causing problems. Experiments proved this idea to be correct, and they are now seeking to implement it in real aircraft.

20th-Century Science Failed to Unravel the Aerodynamic Techniques That Insects Use to Fly

As an insect flies, it beats its wings an average of several hundred times a second. Some insects can even flap and rotate their wings 600 times a second. 67

So many movements are carried out with such extraordinary rapidity that this design can’t possibly be reproduced technologically. In order to reveal the flight techniques of fruit flies, Michael Dickinson, a professor in the department of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues constructed a robot, called Robofly. Robofly imitates the insect's flapping motion, but on a 100-fold larger scale and at only a 1,000th of the fly’s speed. It can flap its wings once every five seconds, driven by six computer-controlled motors.68

Michael Dickinson

For years, many scientists like Professor Dickinson have been carrying out experiments hoping to discover the details of how insects flap their wings back and forth. During his experiments on fruit flies, Dickinson discovered that insect wings do not merely oscillate up and down, as if attached by a simple hinge, but actually use the most complex aerodynamic techniques. Moreover, the wings change orientation during each flap: The wing’s top surface faces up as the wing moves downwards, but then the wing rotates on its axis so that the underside faces up as the wing rises. Scientists trying to analyze these complex motions say that the conventional steady-state aerodynamics, the approach that works for airplane wings, is insufficient.

Fruit flies actually make use of more than one aerodynamic feature. For example, when they flap their wings, they leave behind them a complicated whirlpool of air currents, rather like the wake of a ship. As the wing reverses direction, it passes back through this churning air, recovering some of the energy lost beforehand. The muscles that allow the fruit fly's only 2.5 mm wings to flap 200 times a second are considered as the most powerful of all insects’ flight muscles.69

Scientists agree that considerable progress has been made in aviation technology. When it comes to micro-flapping flight, however, they admit that they are still at the same stage that the Wright Brothers were in 1903. Left: A micro-flight system modeled on insect wings.

Large, flat wings give insects a flight advantage, but also a higher risk of the wings being damaged. They need to be foldable, therefore—yet the wings’ size makes folding difficult. Bees solve this problem by means of a series of hooks known as the hamuli, which join the front and hind wings together in flight. When the bee lands, the hooks separate, and the wings can be comfortably folded away.

Many other details in addition to their wings, the flies’ sharp eyes, their small rear wings (known as halteres) aiding balance, and the sensors organizing the timing of the flapping motion, all testify to the perfection of their design.

Flies have been using these aerodynamic rules for millions of years. That today’s scientists, equipped with the most advanced technology, can’t fully account for insects’ flying techniques is one of the evident proofs of creation. For those who are able to think, God reveals the incomparable nature of His wisdom and knowledge in the tiny fly. In one verse, He reveals:

Humanity! An example has been made, so listen to it carefully. Those whom you call upon besides God are not even able to create a single fly, even if they were to join together to do it. And if a fly steals something from them, they cannot get it back. How feeble are both the seeker and the sought! (Qur’an, 22: 73)