And yet the new wing design actually improves performance in the kinds of sudden winds and other turbulence that typically cause problems for small drones.

Unlike the smooth rounded leading surface typical of aircraft wings, the researchers' design features a sharp, flat edge that forces the air hitting the wing to abruptly separate. According to the researchers, this flow separation would cause efficiency issues for larger aircraft, but can actually be an advantage for smaller fliers, be they natural or human-made.

If there's a trick to all this, it's that separating the flow at the front of the wing actually causes the flow to "attach" more predictably toward the back of the wing. Perhaps surprisingly, this increases flight efficiency in aircraft with wingspans of under a foot (30 cm).

Larger aircraft with normal wings, by contrast, perform better with a boundary layer of air directly in contact with the wing at all times. At larger scales, this boundary layer itself has small eddies of turbulence that work to keep the layer in contact with the wing. But in smaller aircraft that boundary layer is smoother, and is easily separated from the wing, reducing lift and increasing drag.