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Old February 17th 08, 04:31 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Del C
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Posts: 35
Default Argentavis from the Miocene

The article claimed a glide angle of 3 PERCENT, which
is 3 in 100 or approximately 33:1.

3 DEGREES is roughly 3 in 60 or about 20:1, as you
say.

I did rather wonder if the article got percent and
degrees mixed up, as I understand that the best modern
soaring birds do not have an L/D of much over 20:1.

Del Copeland

At 15:06 17 February 2008, Tony Verhulst wrote:
Del C wrote:
This article claims that this very large extinct condor
(Argentavis magnificens) had a glide ratio of 3% at
67 kph, which is about 33:1. This is better than many
older and some newer (e.g. PW5) gliders. So much for
evolution!


A 3 degree glide angle is a slightly over 19:1 glide
ratio. This is high
school trigonometry - simply look up the cotangent
of 3 (the value of
y/x). Not quite as good as a 2-33 :-).

Tony V.