Does a dragonfly have anything in common with an F-15 fighter jet? The answer is yes; a lot more than one would think.
An object turning at a high speed puts it under tremendous stress. The combined forces acting upon it are measured in terms of g-force. When you make a 4 G turn, your body experiences four times its weight upon itself. It’s a choking, stifling sensation; the reason many pilots pass out during high-speed manoeuvres.
At a high-speed turn performed in mid-air, both a dragonfly and an F-15 can handle up to nine times their weight in g-forces. It’s the maximum limit for even the most advanced fighter-aircraft today, but dragonflies have been pulling it off since before the dinosaurs. For about 300 million years, they have been the pinnacle of nature’s own aeronautical evolution.
The similarities don’t end there. Both the dragonfly and the F-15 are top-performers when it comes to hunting their prey. The F-15 has a stellar record in air-to-air combat, with 100 victories and no losses. But even 40 years of modern aerial warfare cannot compare with the trials of Nature’s own battlefield; where dragonflies score a 95 percent chance of catching their prey. That is four times more than that of the average lion.
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