[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index]

Re: four winged Archaeopteryx



"Has anyone looked into the problem of stability in tailess forms and
overall effect on drag?

Yes."

Hello Dr. Cunningham,

It is true that there are decades of well developed studies for large
aircraft, but has anyone tried examining it in organisms? Small size,
flexible wings and other feature make it a very different question.

Areas like the effect of the flapping motion of the wings on control and
stable flight come to mind.

There may be signifigantly different ways of flying involved (for instance
the use of dynamic instability to produce turns in modern forms vs. using
flapping motion to produce a powered turn and changing the position of a
bony tail to change the CG and increase the maintainable angle of attack)
that in turn would imply very different physical capabilities.

There might even be real benefits to having a bony tail (for instance it may
help in running and flying with a heavier skeleton) that would suggest
predisposition to more terrestrial niches.

If you, or anyone else, has observations, speculation or have seen some
references to studies that tried looking into these areas it might be
interesting to pass them on. I find the general subject somewhat
fascinating.

Thank you
-Jonas Weselake-George



----- Original Message ----- From: "James R. Cunningham" <jrccea@bellsouth.net>
To: <paleo@ncf.ca>; <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 6:49 PM
Subject: Re: four winged Archaeopteryx





Ottawa Paleontological Society wrote:

Has anyone looked into the problem of stability in tailess forms and
overall
effect on drag?

Yes.