As the only mammal capable of winged flight, the highly skillful bat hovers and tackles 180-degree turns in 200 degrees/second yet uses up to 25% less power than birds. The wings of the bat act as infinitely adjustable airfoils, able to quickly adapt to changing air speeds and conditions to prevent stalling and maintain ideal wing lift conditions.
The bat body has two types of hairs: a longer, softer hair similar to the fur on a short-haired cat and a second shorter, coarser hair strategically located in rows at the mid-areas and leading edges of the wings. The microscopic, single follicle hairs are made of alpha-keratin protein and have a thick base tapering to a smaller diameter tip. Like airplanes, when the bat reaches a critical vertical angle, the airflow across its wing becomes turbulent, separating from the wing surface and causing the lift to reduce (i.e., stall). The bat's shorter hair is located in areas where airflow turbulence and separation begin so that it can sense the stall. These flexible hairs exit from individual cellular domed structures and bend according to local airflow conditions, activating special sensing cells. The cells' signals inform the bat how to change the shape of its wing for optimal flight performance and prevent a stall. How could the bat's adaptive flight performance inform the aerodynamics of both air and land-based vehicles?
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