Soaring vs. Flapping

"patrick timony" wrote
The roiling motion of clouds I bet is related to undulation for
propulsion.

I'll take that bet

If ailerons are so great then why don't birds have them?

Because nature hasn't invented the piano hinge yet!

Wings and joints spread friction around democratically so
that every particle gets some.

Democratically huh? Just when and where do they vote? And what political
party are they members of?

But when the trailing edge of the fixed wing warps the net movement is
down and forwards - so there is a tiny bit of propulsion backwards.

Adverse yaw and drag... always working against the direction of motion...
won't ever get you where you wanna go.

Soaring is like rolling - it tries to deny friction.

The same way you try to deny the laws of physics and aerodynamics?

Eric

If ailerons are so great then why don't birds have them?

They don't? Look at a hawk's wing in flight. See the long feathers on the
trailing edge of the wings? They function as ailerons.

Dan, U. S. Air Force, retired

Uh, technically, Dan, that's an example of wing-warping, not ailerons.
Bird wings are enormously complex structures. Heck, FEATHERS are
incredibly complicated - look at one under a good lens sometime, or
look up some photomicrographs. Very clever design.

Ailerons are mechanically MUCH simpler. Nature doesn't always choose
simple over efficient.

(B2431) wrote in message ...
If ailerons are so great then why don't birds have them?

They don't? Look at a hawk's wing in flight. See the long feathers on the
trailing edge of the wings? They function as ailerons.

Dan, U. S. Air Force, retired

If ailerons are so great then why don't birds have them?

Heh, how about,"If the wheel is so great then why don't cheetahs have
them?" Or how's this, "If hydraulic pistons are so great then why don't
elephants have them?"



--
http://www.ernest.isa-geek.org/
"Ignorance is mankinds normal state,
alleviated by information and experience."
Veeduber