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These bugs flightless fruit flies - may some day help make airplanes more fuel efficient.
Their work starts in a wind tunnel at NASA's Langley Research Center where technicians
install the edge of a wing that's covered with a special coating.
The task is to design a surface that prevents insect residue from sticking.
The reason is if you have any residue sticking it trips the air flow over it.
Rough airflow increases airplane fuel usage as much as 30 percent, says NASA's
Environmentally Responsible Aviation project.
Researchers use the fruit flies to simulate the kinds of bugs that planes encounter every day.
When you look back at the literature people have been
trying to solve this problem for more than 60 years.
In those years scientists have developed all sorts of nonstick materials.
Between commercial coatings we've looked at and new coatings and surfaces we've
engineered and modified we've looked at about 60 different surfaces.
For the bugs it's up close.
They are launched at the coated wing at about 150 miles an hour.
The researchers' goal - to narrow the field of coatings to a few that are effective
enough to test on an airplane in flight.