Thing to remember here is that what works in organic living context does not always do so well when it comes time to fabricate the damn thing in inert man-made materials. Witness the joys and humiliations of the poor bastards trying to replicate the hydrodynamics of whale and dolphin skin/blubber in covering our subs. The anechoic tiles we have to resort to are insanely expensive, prone to falling off, and mostly nowhere near as good as what whales and dolphins grow naturally for moving through the water. Same-same with the special suits for competitive swimmers–Those are crazy expensive and a massive pain in the ass to maintain.

Until we’re bio-engineering giant birds, the most you’re going to do is emulate basic principles. I can only imagine what a huge pain in the ass it would be to have to maintain a set of artificial wing feathers for some ungodly mechanical bird, no matter how effective it might be in some applications.