Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Dynamic Soaring Dissected - Colin Taylor

Dynamic Soaring Dissected

By: Colin Taylor

Paperback | 19 January 2023

At a Glance

Paperback


$29.69

or 4 interest-free payments of $7.42 with

Ships in 5 to 7 business days

Dynamic Soaring Dissected

Albatrosses fly over the oceans in swooping, curving flight gliding thousands of kilometres in search of food, mostly without flapping their wings. This is known as dynamic soaring, which is the use of the energy of the horizontal wind to sustain speed and height. It is different from the soaring flight of most other birds and gliders which use the vertical motion of the air to maintain or gain height. Since the 1880's, a time before manned gliding flight had been achieved, the mechanism of dynamic soaring has been poorly explained by the Rayleigh cycle or the wind gradient theory. However, there is more to dynamic soaring than the wind gradient and furthermore, the true nature of albatross flight has only recently been revealed by filming and GPS tracking. Dynamic Soaring Dissected takes up the discussion where it was left in the 19th century and explains how aircraft and birds fly. It looks at albatross flight through the lens of electronic tracking and takes us on a foraging trip with an albatross in long-distance soaring flight. In the Windward Turn Theory, it describes the mechanism of dynamic soaring and the hidden effect of the wind on a bird or an aircraft in flight. It explains the way that albatrosses are able to turn this effect to their advantage and how they are able to dynamic soar crosswind, upwind and downwind. It also describes how radio-control gliders can achieve huge speeds in circling flight and settles the perennial debate on the Myth of the Downwind Turn and what really happens when an aircraft turns downwind and ends up in a stall and spin accident.

More in Science in General

Liars, cheats and copycats : Trickery and deception in nature - James O'Hanlon
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics : Anniversary Edition - Carlo Rovelli
Against the Machine : On the Unmaking of Humanity - Paul Kingsnorth

RRP $55.00

$42.75

22%
OFF
The First Astronomers : How Indigenous Elders read the stars - Duane Hamacher
How Emotions Are Made : The Secret Life of the Brain - Lisa Feldman Barrett
The Origin of Species : 150th Anniversary Edition - Charles Darwin
Captivate : The Science of Succeeding with People - Vanessa Van Edwards

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
The Tech Coup : How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley - Marietje Schaake
Lifespan : Why We Age - and Why We Don't Have To - David Sinclair

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
Sapiens A Graphic History, Volume 2 : The Pillars of Civilization - Yuval Noah Harari