Comparing Drones and Swifts, Swifts Win, Hands Down

Swedish researchers have found that common swifts can stay aloft for close to an incredible ten months, straight, no rest-stop breaks, perhaps sleeping while in flight. A Wall Street Journal article summarizing a paper in Current Biology makes the interesting comparison of human technology, specifically lightweight drones, to these little birds.

Micro air vehicles, or MAVs, can remain in the air for a matter of mere hours. "Their performance is ridiculous compared with these birds," Lund Uni...