Mystery “solved”: how honeybees fly
Scientists found in the 1930s that they couldn’t explain how bees fly, and it has remained somewhat of a puzzle until recently.
http://www.world-science.net

>>>>Scientists found in the 1930s that they couldn’t explain how bees fly,

not quite.

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040911/mathtrek.asp

To boil the whole refutation down:

The claim that "bees shouldn't be able to fly" is based upon a calculation of aerodynamic lift wherein bees fly like an airplane flies - i.e. with a *fixed* wing at a *fixed* angle of attack.

Bees do not fly like planes do. Period.

It has never been a puzzle except in pop culture.

they say... that for bees and flys... the air seems much thicker relative to them.

-MT

there are 2 sets of muscles controlling fly's wings

one set controls the up and down movement
the other set reconfigures the hinge
so that the wing tips trace out a figure eight

the wings also change their angle of attack

there is also a small "pendulum" at the base of each wing that act as a counterbalance.

there are 2 sets of muscles controlling fly's wings. one set controls the up and down movement. the other set reconfigures the hinge
so that the wing tips trace out a figure eight. the wings also change their angle of attack. There is also a small "pendulum" at the base of each wing that act as a counterbalance.Also, their wing muscles act as springs and oscillate, rather than pushing and pulling in individual motions like our muscles. Instead of having to send a steady stream of signals to the wing muscle: up--down--up--down--up--down, which would be impossible at that speed, there is just one constant signal: maintain this tension, punctuated by occasional adjustments: increase tension or decrease tension. (I know this is a little oversimplified, there are more muscles and more signals because of the figure eight motion but this is the underlying principle.)

Their muscles operate in a state of resonance, shaped by the tension signal.

It's like the way humans play trumpets: you put a certain tension on your lips, blow in just the right way, and your lips vibrate. Our lip muscles are far more complex than a fly's wing muscles, we can use them to form a variety of shapes, so many that we can make the sounds of language with them. But they can also be used to oscillate the lips and create music, just as fly wings oscillate to create lift.