Bumble bees shouldn't be able to fly? There is a common belief that according to the known laws of physics, bumble bees should not be able to fly. The quote usually goes something like this: > “Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway.” Have there been any papers published (or can someone show me some calculations) on bumble bee flight which dispels this myth?

This article Bumblebees finally cleared for takeoff is a good summary of a Cornell physicist's research in the year 2000 mathematically demonstrating and simulating why bees and similar insects can fly.

> The computer-modeling accomplishment - which is expected to aid the future design of tiny insect-like flying machines and should dispel the longstanding myth that "bumblebees cannot fly, according to conventional aerodynamics"
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> The old bumblebee myth simply reflected our poor understanding of unsteady viscous fluid dynamics... Unlike fixed-wing aircraft with their steady, almost inviscid (without viscosity) flow dynamics, insects fly in a sea of vortices, surrounded by tiny eddies and whirlwinds that are created when they move their wings.