Birds Give a Lesson to Plane Designers

Roland Piquepaille points out a news release from the University of Michigan where researchers are looking to birds and bats for insights into aerospace engineering. Wei Shyy and his colleagues are learning from solutions developed by nature and applying them to the technology of flight. A presentation on this topic was also given at the 2005 TED conference. From the news release: "The roll rate of the aerobatic A-4 Skyhawk plane is about 720 degrees per second. The roll rate of a barn swallow exceeds 5,000 degrees per second. Select military aircraft can withstand gravitational forces of 8-10 G. Many birds routinely experience positive G-forces greater than 10 G and up to 14 G. Flapping flight is inherently unsteady, but that's why it works so well. Birds, bats and insects fly in a messy environment full of gusts traveling at speeds similar to their own. Yet they can react almost instantaneously and adapt with their flexible wings."

Comments

But if imitation is the way to go...

[hyades1]

...why do so many Trekkies dress like Captain Kirk, but they never get lucky with all the beautiful alien girls?

Re:Missing tag.

[saxoholic]

i've seen this tag a lot, maybe i missed the memo, but what exactly does the "oh no its roland" tag refer to?

Re:Missing tag.

[palegray.net]

Refers to Roland Piquepaille, Slashdot userid rpiquepa, infamous author of many Slashdot articles of dubious quality. You can set his stuff to auto-ignore if you like...