In the insect world, the best in-flight skills are dragonflies. Their flight ability has long been out of this world, and it can be said that the ability to avoid obstacles is very strong too, and even a bit spooky.


So let's talk about the dragonfly's bizarre flying ability, how high is the flight level of dragonflies? Some species of dragonflies can fly at speeds of up to 50 kilometers per hour, which is twice as fast as most insects.


In addition to flying fast, dragonflies can also hover in the air (in a very similar posture to hummingbirds). They can also go from rest to high speed in a very short period of time (scholars speculate that they can take off in 0.01 seconds), and during flight, dragonflies can make almost sharp turns in place (360-degree flight without dead ends).



What is even more impressive is that dragonflies can change the direction of their flight at will, whether it is up or down can easily switch. If necessary, they can even fly upside down, which is a function that human flying machines have been trying to obtain for years.


In addition to high flying skills, dragonflies can also fly a very long distance in one breath. Taking the ten-meter distance as an example, it can jump and fly within one to ten meters. Human beings have been pursuing this ability by inventing guided missiles because this ability can easily evade any anti-aircraft interception system.



Scientists have solved part of the mystery of the dragonfly's flying skills in their long-term research. For example, the high-flying skills of dragonflies rely heavily on a pair of delicate wings, which are covered with folds and a complex vein structure to ensure that each fold and grid has a different angle when the wings are waved. This means that the entire dragonfly wing is littered with neural networks that can quickly determine the location of weak air currents during flight.


Scientists from the UK, Richard Bernfrey, used multiple high-speed cameras to slow down the dragonfly's wing flapping speed by 80 times. Through the study, it was found that each wing of the dragonfly is controlled by an independent muscle system, which can each wave at different frequencies and angles and can also rotate, so the dragonfly can use the phase difference between their wings to complete a variety of difficult flight techniques.


After understanding the principle of dragonfly flight. German scientists copied a mechanical dragonfly, this small mechanical dragonfly and dragonflies have the same shape, and the way of flight is similar, but the skill is far inferior to the real dragonfly.


A real dragonfly can make exactly the same movements in a reaction time of milliseconds, which is what scientists have not been able to understand because the dragonfly's mind is roughly the size of a thicker pinhead.


According to another study, dragonflies only need 3 milliseconds to make the corresponding control according to their needs. So a small brain can make calculations in such a short time, but how in the end it does it?



It is said that the future of human drones, computer development may be inspired by the dragonfly brain, to develop a drone controlled by AI. This process may also need 5 to 10 years of time because the dragonfly must first completely overcome the working mechanism of the wings to do.