This is a life size wooden model of a bumble bee with wings made of very thin slivers of wood. Inside, a system of cogs makes them flap very fast, powered by a curled up wood shaving spring inside the "abdomen" and wound up by a key which is inserted where the sting would be. The "bee" is wound up and released in mid-air, and despite protestations that it wooden fly, it really can.-- nineteenthly, Feb 01 2008 In a flap http://www.newscien...es/ns/av/dn8382.aviYou think you can get a mechanical system to do this 200 times a second? Warning: 5MB .avi file [neutrinos_shadow, Feb 01 2008] http://www.spatialrobots.com/?cat=12 [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 01 2008] Pray like Aretha Franklin http://www.youtube....watch?v=qMdf1onDkxAWood Beez [coprocephalous, Feb 01 2008] It'll never take off.
Also: category check, please?-- phoenix, Feb 01 2008 'wood shaving spring" - magic technology?-- DrCurry, Feb 01 2008 //wood shaving spring // - I take it that this is a sharp ferrous spring that can be used to shave wood?-- Custardguts, Feb 01 2008 I like the idea of a wood shaving spring. Has such a thing ever been made?-- bungston, Feb 01 2008 Laminated wood bow limbs is about as close as I can get... Good enough?-- Custardguts, Feb 01 2008 Baked by Scritti Politti.-- coprocephalous, Feb 01 2008 Thanks for the vid, [neutrinos_shadow]. I think it probably depends on the flexibility of the wood spring and the mass of the wings. I'm off to do some calculations. Clearly there's still the problem of the movement, but as i said, the urban myth says they can't fly anyway, so where's the problem.
[coprocephalous], definitely the funniest anno i've read in a while!-- nineteenthly, Feb 01 2008 sp in the title: "bee".
////wood shaving spring // - I take it that this is a sharp ferrous spring that can be used to shave wood?//
[Custardguts], bees are ferrous, sharp in the stinger and are known to dance in Spring. Might they be utilised in this wood shaving procedure?-- theleopard, Feb 01 2008 I've done a really tiny amount of research and thinking, and i think the spring could be made of silver birch bark, the bits of the bee not subjected to much strain (i.e. probably none of it) could be made of balsa wood and the rest of something very tough.
Also, it occurs to me that if wooden cogs were to rub against each other two hundred times a second, they'd probably burst into flame, which is a plus. How about a burning flying wooden bumblebee? Surely that's an improvement?-- nineteenthly, Feb 01 2008 Not Enough Wooden Jam-- globaltourniquet, Feb 01 2008 +1-- po, Feb 01 2008 random, halfbakery