Research published in the Journal of Experimental Biology has shown that flying fish are every bit as good at gliding as birds. The fish are able glide for more than 40 seconds, covering distances of 400 meters at near 70 km/h. So how do you test how good these fish are at gliding? Dry them, stuff them, mount them on a six-axis sensor, and stick them in a wind tunnel. At least, that’s what Haecheon Choi and Hyungmin Park of Seoul National University did. They found that the fish were extremely aerodynamic, and by adjusting their fins, angle, and distance from the water, they were able to glide extremely well, and then collapse their fins for swimming. Flying snakes and squirrels were sadly ignored in the experiments.
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Bizarre wind tunnel experiment reveals flying fish are just as good at gliding as birds
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