Soaring vs. Flapping

Keith, You forgot the "controlled crash" that a Albatross makes when it
lands.
Bill Higdon
Keith Park wrote:
Soaring is not rare in nature. Birds, especially big birds flap only when
absolutely necessary. They soar. Flapping is very inefficient. The albatross
can spend weeks aloft without flapping except for take-off.
"patrick timony" a écrit dans le message news:
...

In another post we were talking about soaring vs. flapping flight.
Does anyone else find it strange that Soaring flight is so rare in
nature but so popular with us for the last 100 years? I've heard that
the Wright Brothers patented Wing Warping (Flapping) and never let
anyone develop planes using Wing Warping flight. Is that true? Does
that explain why the designs up until the time of the Wright Brothers
were all Bird-like flapping designs and after were all fixed wing
soaring designs?

On 17 Sep 2003 07:09 PM, Bill Higdon posted the following:
Keith, You forgot the "controlled crash" that a Albatross makes when
it lands.

Well, they *are* seagoing birds.

----------------------------------------------------
Del Rawlins-
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Del Rawlins wrote in message ...
On 17 Sep 2003 07:09 PM, Bill Higdon posted the following:
Keith, You forgot the "controlled crash" that a Albatross makes when
it lands.

Well, they *are* seagoing birds.

And they're clearly designed to take the punishment. Grumman builds
'em strong. ;-p