Dragonflies and CoFlow Technology

Dean Sigler Biomimicry, Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

A Different Approach to Regional Aerial Mobility Dr. Gecheng Zha sees a relationship between dragonflies and his CoFlow technology.  Mimicking the look, and more importantly, the aerodynamics of the creature.  Director of the Aerodynamic and CFD Lab, University of Miami (UM), Zha is expanding his research into eVTOL (electric Vertical Take Off and Landing) aircraft, Martian exploration, and large scale sailing ships. His talk at the 2019 Sustainable Aviation Symposium at UC Berkeley was a revelation and his subsequent work shows the multiple directions in which his CoFlow technology can be applied. Urban and Regional Air Mobility CoFlow Jet does the improbable trick of pushing air over the wing, only to have it sucked in near the trailing edge, passed through an internal compressor and blown out through slots in the wing’s leading edge, creating a steady stream that increases the lift coefficient and lowers the drag coefficient.  Zha claims that this enables the use of battery power because the propulsors can …