English: Researchers from NASA's Langley Research Center are in Shreveport, Louisiana, with the Boeing ecoDemonstrator 757 aircraft looking for bugs. They are part of a NASA Aeronautics' Environmentally Responsible Aviation project testing non-stick wing coatings designed to minimize insect residue and help reduce aircraft fuel consumption.

During 15 planned ecoDemonstrator flights over three weeks, the team will assess how well five coatings, developed by NASA Langley materials scientists, prevent insect remains from sticking to the leading edge of the 757's right wing.

In the first part of the experiment, scientists collected bugs on untreated wing surfaces during initial test flights to establish insect accumulation rates. In this photo taken after the flights, researchers counted the number of bugs to create a baseline. The baseline will be used in later tests to compare against the treated surfaces to see how effective the coatings are at reducing insect remains. Researchers say they are getting great data.

Shreveport was chosen, in part, because of its good-sized bug population.

Bug residue is a nuisance on cars, but on some airplane designs it is also a drag, literally. Studies have shown that keeping the air flow smooth, or laminar, over a wing can reduce fuel consumption as much as six percent. Even something as small as a bug on a leading edge can cause turbulent wedges that interrupt laminar flow, resulting in an increase in drag and fuel use.