Chrysopelea

Gliding

Chrysopelea climbs using ridge scales along its underside, pushing against the rough bark of tree trunks, allowing it to move vertically up a tree. Upon reaching the end of a branch, the snake continues moving until its tail dangles from the end of the branch. It then makes a J-shape bend, leans forward to select the level of inclination it wishes to use to control its glide path, and selects a desired landing area. Once it decides on a destination, it propels itself by thrusting its body up and away from the tree, sucking in its abdomen and flaring out its ribs to turn its body into a "pseudo concave wing", all the while making a continual serpentine motion of lateral undulation parallel to the ground to stabilise its direction in midair and land safely.

The combination of forming a C-shape, flattening its abdomen and making a motion of lateral undulation in the air makes it possible for the snake to glide in the air, where it also manages to save energy compared to travel on the ground and avoid earth-bound predators. The concave wing that the snake creates in flattening itself nearly doubles the width of its body from the back of the head to the anal vent, causing the cross section of the snake's body to resemble the cross section of a frisbee or flying disc. When a flying disc spins in the air, the designed cross sectional concavity causes increased air pressure under the centre of the disc, causing lift for the disc to fly, and the snake continuously moves in lateral undulation to create the same effect of increased air pressure underneath its arched body to glide.

Flying snakes can glide on par with gliding animals, such as flying squirrels, despite the lack of limbs, wings, or any other wing-like projections. They can glide as far as 100 meters through the forests and jungles they inhabit. The snakes' destination is mostly predicted by ballistics; however, they can exercise some in-flight attitude control by "slithering" in the air.

Their ability to glide has been an object of interest for physicists and the United States Department of Defense in recent years, and studies continue to be made on what other, more subtle, factors contribute to their gliding. According to recent research conducted by the University of Chicago, scientists discovered a negative correlation between size and gliding ability, in which smaller flying snakes were able to glide longer distances horizontally.

According to research performed by Professor Jake Socha at Virginia Tech, these snakes can change the shape of their body to produce aerodynamic forces and assist them in gliding. Scientists are hopeful that this research will lead to the design of robots that can glide in the air from one place to another.