Abstract:
The flight in animals, such as insects, birds and bats, is determined by the aerodynamic forces on their wings. Understanding the underlying mechanisms plays a fundamental role in studying the comparative biology, behaviors, morphologies and evolutions in the related animals, and can also provide bionic guidance in designing novel aircrafts. In the present paper, the progress of these researches in the past two decades are described, and then the future trend and work to be carried out are also discussed. The flapping aerodynamic mechanisms in insect flight, bird flight and bat flight are discussed respectively in section 1 to 3 Finally, in section 4, some suggestions on the research in the future 5-10 years are addressed.