How do flies fly?

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Like other insects, flies use their wings to fly! But what’s cool about flies is that they can fly quickly and make sharp turns when they fly, very differently than the way lots of other insects, like butterflies and beetles, fly about.

In addition to their one full set of wings, flies also have a set of smaller “helper” wings, called “halteres.” The halteres move with the wings and help a fly to stay steady while it flies. If the fly turns sharply or knocks into something and rolls over in flight, the halteres help it to correct itself quickly! This allows flies to fly around, whizzing and zooming and zipping on by!

Beat it!

Have you ever learned about the way that other flying things work? For example, birds, airplanes, and kites all have special methods of getting up into the air and then staying there!

What kinds of similarities and differences do you notice in how things fly?