Hummingbirds go to mexico to vacation a lot more than I do. Imagine if humans had a manadatory 2000 mile trip and 6 month layover twice a year to survive.
Once you have technology that enables flapping type motion, it's opening up the applicable physics to like 6 degrees of freedom versus zero in current wing technology (fixed = 0 degree of freedom); much more complex and interesting to study.
How else will we move toward ornithopter style wings, or vehicles that can hover via wing movement.
Rotating wing aircraft have problems with supersonic flight - and the wing (rotor) itself reaches supersonic much quicker than the aircraft itself, thats why helis are usually slow, compared to aircraft.
I guess “supersonic wing flapping” would have similar problems, but maybe there are more clever solutions than can be modeled, with so much degree of freedom?
Once you have technology that enables flapping type motion, it's opening up the applicable physics to like 6 degrees of freedom versus zero in current wing technology (fixed = 0 degree of freedom); much more complex and interesting to study.
How else will we move toward ornithopter style wings, or vehicles that can hover via wing movement.