Rasputin Unleashes a TRAIN OF THOUGHT towards Philly...

Most people are repulsed at the sight of a common housefly and react instinctively with its immediate eradication. The reasons for this repulsion must be numerous, however, I may discuss that at a later time. Today, I wish to start a train of thought rolling down the track in the direction of Philly. The ccmmon housefly ( diptera ) providing one can overcome his or her feelings of repulsion, offers an amazing example of what one can find if one looks below the surface of some ordinary everyday encounters with nature...The common housefly is a marvel of engineering in its construction and in its functionality...The fly is both elegant and intricate in its ability to maintain flight...The mechanisms responsible for beating its wings are not really complicated...The thorax of the wing-bearing segment is basically a box...with the sides ( pleura ) and base (sternum ) rigidly fused and the wings connected where the rigid tergum is attached to the pleura by flexible membranes ... this membranous attachment and the wing hinges is composed of resilin which gives crucial elasticity to the thoradic box...The fly posseses what is called direct flight muscles, the upward stroke is produced by contraction of the direct muscles attached to the wing base inside the pivotal point....Blaa....blaa....blaa....I could go on and describe the intricate muscle and nerve associated with the wonders of the fly but I would rather move on to the reason for this train of thought...I find it interesting that the common housefly ( diptera ) has in its marvel of engineering the ability to aerodynamically reduce drag and enhance the lift of its wings by naturally having hairs on its wing surface that affect the boundary layer flow across the wing surface....Now, is this not something!!!! The common housefly deals with boundary layer flow NATURALLY.... Not to change the subject but have you ever looked at a section of VELCROW ??? That's right , the stuff that keeps our sport equipment together.... If you do, you'll notice that its surface is loaded with hundreds of hook-like projections....much like hairs... Now, moving on down the track.....Most airfoils or wings have a stall angle of about 20 degrees ... that's the point where the boundary layer starts to separate and become turbulant thereby killing the lift of the airfoil.....To increase that stall angle , sometimes stall fences , flaps ( to increase surface area ) or even complicated air-suction arrangements are used....Well , I contend that if boundary layer problems have been solved by the common housefly, I think that .......blaa.....blaaa.....blaaaaa... Keep the train going.....Good Luck......