View a video of a fly ‘swimming’ through the air.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/12230.jpg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1)
Fruit flies turn in midair with a shrug of their shoulders.
A new analysis shows that the flies’ aerial gymnastics are driven by wing joints that act like wind-up toys, letting the bugs whirl around almost automatically.
Insights from the study, which was published online April 5 in Physical Review Letters, could someday help build better flying robots.