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Klappentext Although bird flight is as complex as is the variety of the birds using it, the underlying physical principles are the same for anything that flies. In this book author Colin Pennycuick explains his Flight program, and outlines the mechanics of flight as applied to birds and other flying vertebrates. The first half covers the power requirements for flapping flight, and relates the performance limitations of bird, bat and pterosaur wings to their different mechanical structure, and to the characteristics of the sliding-filament muscle engine, which is common to all vertebrates. Each chapter consists of an equation-free text, supplemented by boxes for technical or specialised topics, including the equations used by the program to generate performance curves for flapping and gliding flight of particular species. Zusammenfassung Outlines the principles of flight! of birds in particular. This book describes a way of simplifying the mechanics of flight into a practical computer program! which will predict in some detail what any bird! real or hypothetical! can and cannot do. Inhaltsverzeichnis Modelling the Flying bird; The Flight Environment; Mechanics of level flight; Vortices and vortex wakes; The wings of birds; The membrane wings of bats and pterosaurs; Muscles as engines; Simulating long-distance migration; Accelerated flight and manoeuvring; Gliding flight and soaring; Information systems for flying animals; Water birds; Allometry; Wind tunnel experiments with birds; Testing predictions from theory; Evolution of flight
List of contents
Modelling the Flying bird; The Flight Environment; Mechanics of level flight; Vortices and vortex wakes; The wings of birds; The membrane wings of bats and pterosaurs; Muscles as engines; Simulating long-distance migration; Accelerated flight and manoeuvring; Gliding flight and soaring; Information systems for flying animals; Water birds; Allometry; Wind tunnel experiments with birds; Testing predictions from theory; Evolution of flight
