Wherever bees land, they always manage to touch down without crashing or tumbling. Scientists have finally figured out how they maneuver themselves onto all sorts of surfaces to land.

The bees’ technique depends mostly on eyesight. Engineers seek to design a new generation of automated aircraft that would make perfectly gentle landings, even in outer space.

When bees approach an object, they steadily slow down to a stop by adjusting their speed as the size of their target steadily looks larger. No matter how flat or steep the surface (even pond pumps, I’d imagine), bees slow to a hover at about half an inch away from wherever they’re going to land. This indicates that the insects are somehow using their eyes to measure that specific distance.

The bees make contact with their antennae first, by pointing them almost perpendicular to the landing area. Then the bees move their front legs up and finish with a flip-like maneuver to get their rear legs onto the landing surface.

It’s a graceful and acrobatic motion that would be perfect to aircraft design.