UC Davis researchers found that red-tailed hawks adjust their wing and tail movements during molt to maintain flight performance despite missing feathers. The findings could improve wildlife rehabilitation practices and inspire more resilient drones and uncrewed aerial vehicles.
UC Davis undergraduate teams captured three of four major awards in the 2025-26 CITRIS Aviation Prize, developing innovative software and simulation tools to support California’s future advanced air mobility network and electric air taxi transportation systems.
The National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development will fund the assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering’s work investigating the wing movements hawks use to conduct lateral flight maneuvers.
The Center for Animal Locomotion and Innovation hosted a grand opening ceremony at its UC Davis location in May. The afternoon event featured interactive research displays, technology demonstrations and meet-and-greets with experts (and their birds).
UC Davis and Oxford researchers are the first to document live birds actively shifting flight stability mid-maneuver, a discovery that could reshape how engineers design drones that adapt to their environments.
Mechanical and aerospace engineering students Esther Kung and Huy Tran were selected to receive scholarships from the Vertical Flight Society’s Vertical Flight Foundation, which recognizes and supports outstanding students pursuing careers in vertical flight.
Birds have an ability to fly through obstacles by shifting their shape in flight, which is difficult to reproduce in uncrewed aerial vehicles, commonly known as UAVs or drones. A new study from researchers at the University of Oxford and the University of California, Davis, published March 4 in Journal of the Royal Society Interface, shows how researchers can begin to approach this challenge, leading to insights into how birds fly and to improved UAV designs.
A collaboration between engineering and veterinary medicine, the new Center for Animal Locomotion and Innovation at UC Davis will use cutting-edge technology to understand birds of prey in flight, advancing the design of uncrewed aerial vehicles and the treatment and rehabilitation of birds.
Flying taxis may have once seemed like science fiction, but UC Davis researcher Seongkyu Lee is helping make them a real-life commute option, from designing quieter vehicles to championing air mobility education.
Dean Richard L. Corsi sits down with Chancellor Gary S. May to reflect on the imagination, principles and lifelong curiosity required to build what’s possible — and to ensure all next-level solutions of tomorrow serve the planet and the public good.
