Airplane wing design: Design in nature was there first with owl wings

They solve all kinds of problems we are still working on:

The shape of owl wings, which help the animals fly quietly, can inform airfoil designs. Credit: Wang and Liu

Trailing-edge noise is the dominant source of sound from aeronautical and turbine engines like those in airplanes, drones, and wind turbines. Suppressing this noise pollution is a major environmental goal for some urban areas.

In Physics of Fluids, researchers from Xi’an Jiaotong University used the characteristics of owl wings to inform airfoil design and significantly reduce the trailing-edge noise.

“Nocturnal owls produce about 18 decibels less noise than other birds at similar flight speeds due to their unique wing configuration,” said author Xiaomin Liu. “Moreover, when the owl catches prey, the shape of the wings is also constantly changing, so the study of the wing edge configuration during owl flight is of great significance.”

American Institute of Physics, “Owl wing design reduces aircraft, wind turbine noise pollution” at Phys.org (January 18, 2022)

Rodents everywhere regret this development.

The paper is open access.

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