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The growing science of biomimicry focuses on what humanity can learn from the world, and Airbus engineers are learning quite a lot about efficient solutions for aircraft design that nature has spent millions of years refining. 
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Scoop.it!
"Scientists have been trying to unlock the secrets of shark skin for more than 50 years. The key to sharks' hydrodynamic prowess lies in how the rigid, tooth-like structures that coat their flexible skin change the flow of water as sharks swim forward – but attempts to quantify this effect have fallen short. After all, it's tough to fabricate a material that closely mimics shark skin, a marvel of Nature honed over the 400 million years that sharks have sleuthed the seas."
Marcelo Errera's curator insight,
July 14, 2015 3:03 PM
Mimicking is a great way of fast-forwarding the design process. It is a never ending process.
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"In 2005, Mercedes-Benz revealed a concept car with a strange shape. Called the Bionic, the cartoonishly snub-nosed vehicle was modeled after Ostracion cubicus, the yellow boxfish. Car manufacturers aren’t the only ones to take inspiration from this weird coral dweller. But researchers now say engineers who mimicked the boxfish might have been misled."
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"Harvard scientists say that they've managed to replicate one of the most fascinating organs of the animal kingdom in a lab. Their finely-detailed synthetic shark skin could make some of the fastest underwater robots around, and maybe even one day grace human wetsuits or the hulls of ships."
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Speedo has abandoned its shark-inspired swimsuits for the streamlined silhouette of the barracuda.
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"It only takes a brief journey down a B road during the summer months to end up with a car looking like it has driven through a plague of insects. Amplify this effect by the power of a space shuttle wingspan and bug remnants can result in a significant increase in drag. The problem is that when an insect hits an aircraft at speed its mass ruptures and undergoes some chemical changes which make it stickier. Flying through a swarm of insects leads to an accumulation of debris on the leading edge of wings which creates drag and increases fuel consumption. NASA researchers, in collaboration with engineers at Langley and Boeing, studied the microscopically-rough texture of lotus leaves in order to understand how the surface is so effective at repelling dirt, dust and water."
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From
gemini
"Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) are testing a model “whale tail” that can be attached to ships. NTNU is conducting these tests in the Marintek Towing Tank in cooperation with Rolls-Royce and the British companies Seaspeed and MOST. [...] The main goal of the whale tail is to help reduce fuel use by using wave energy to help the ship move forward."
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The sailfish can swim faster than a cheetah can run – and the secrets behind its speed inspired McLaren’s Frank Stephenson to create a new car.
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The United States Air Force (USAF) is taking flying lessons from geese and spiny lobsters. This may seem like the mother of all bureaucratic errors, but there’s actually some pretty solid science behind it. In exploiting a phenomenon known as “vortex surfing,” the USAF has found that by having C-17 cargo planes flying in formation, it can reduce fuel consumption by up to ten percent.
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