A new University of California, Berkeley study is the first to show that newborn birds exhibit a controlled activation of the wings that allows them to land safely when falling upside down. The birds were able to right themselves by flapping their wings asymmetrically and rolling about their long body axis. Evolutionary biologist Robert Dudley says that while the study helps us understand the evolution of bird flight, it also offers potential applications on how to design military drones in similar situations.

"So for search and rescue, reconnaissance, you name it, and a lot of those things, if they’re kind of climbing in irregular terrain, they’re going to end up upside-down and aerial whether they like it or not. So they can fall of walls, for example. So how do you right a falling robot? It’s not an obvious—there’s no obvious solution to this problem. And so, I think by the study of how animals engage in aerial righting reflexes, there are potential technological applications for this huge diversity of crazy drones and hybrid locomotor systems people are trying to develop."