Pentagon Wants Secret of Flying Snakes
Updated: 1 day 14 hours ago
Lee Speigel
Translation by Autumnson Blog
(Nov. 24) -- Look, up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's ... a snake?
（11月24日） - 看，天空上面，它是一隻鳥，它是一架飛機，它是...一條蛇？
Yes, and the Defense Department wants to know how this specific genus of tree-dwelling snakes, called Chrysopelea, are able to launch themselves into the air and glide long distances without the aid of wings.
是的，和國防部想知道這被稱為 Chrysopelea的樹棲蛇的特定種類，如何能夠發射自己進入空氣中，和長距離滑行而沒有翅膀的幫助。
To this end, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has funded the research of Virginia Tech biologist John Socha, who has studied and filmed the snakes in Asia, The Washington Post reports.
為此，美國國防高級研究計劃局DARPA，已資助弗吉尼亞理工大學生物學家約翰索恰的研究，他已研究和拍攝亞洲的蛇，華盛頓郵報報導。
Twin-barred tree snake (Chrysopelea pelias) taking to the air. This species does not glide as well as C. paradisi, but it is able to move horizontally.雙棒樹蛇（Chrysopelea珀利阿斯）發射到空氣中，這品種不會如C.天堂般滑翔 ，但它能夠水平移動。
In a paper just published in the journal Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, Socha and his colleagues wrote, "Of any terrestrial animal glider, snakes exhibit the greatest active movements, which may affect their trajectory dynamics. We launched 'flying' snakes from a 15-meter tower and recorded the mid-to-end portion of trajectories with four video cameras to reconstruct the snakes' body position."
在Bioinspiration與仿生學期刊剛剛發表的論文，索恰和他的同事寫道，“任何陸地動物滑翔機中，蛇表現出最大的活躍動作，它可能影響它們的彈道動力。我們從一 15 - 米高的塔發射'飛'蛇，和記錄了中間至終端部分的彈道，用四部攝像機去重構蛇的身體姿勢。“
In the videos, the reptiles are seen undulating side to side, resulting in their own unique slithering aerodynamic system.
在影片中，那爬蟲動物被見到邊到邊起伏，造成它們獨特的滑行氣動系統。
"The snake is very active in the air, and you can kind of envision it as having multiple segments that become multiple wings," Socha said. "The leading edge becomes the trailer, and then the trailer becomes the leading edge."
As the snakes -- which can get up to 4 feet long -- travel either from tree to tree or directly to the ground, they somehow twist and flatten their bodies into an S-shape. Socha suggests this helps them stay aloft and land nearly 800 feet away from the tree where they started.
"Basically ... they become one long wing," he said.
Before DARPA took over Socha's funding, he was sponsored by the National Geographic Society, which followed his trek to Asia to film the amazing flying creatures.
Among the mysteries of the flying snakes is how the reptiles are able to turn while in the air. Also, the snakes actually leap off the trees to begin their flight, dropping to gain speed and then undulating their bodies to keep them flying.
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