books
why dont jumbo jets flap their wings flying animals flying machines and how they are different
what do a bumble bee and a 747 jet have in common its not a trick question . the fact is they have quite a lot in common . they both have wings . they both fly . and theyre both ideally suited to it . they just do it differently . br why dont jumbo jets flap their wings offers a fascinating explanation of how nature and human engineers each arrived at powered flight . what emerges is a highly readable account of two very different approaches to solving the same fundamental problems of moving through the air including lift thrust turning and landing . the book traces the slow and deliberate evolutionary process of animal flight in birds bats and insects over millions of years and compares it to the directed efforts of human beings to create the aircraft over the course of a single century . br among the many questions the book answers br why are wings necessary for flighthow do different wings fly differentlywhen did flight evolve in animalswhat vision knowledge and technology was needed before humans could learn to flywhy are animals and aircrafts perfectly suited to the kind of flying they do br david e. alexander first describes the basic properties of wings before launching into the diverse challenges of flight and the concepts of flight aerodynamics and control to present an integrated view that shows both why birds have historically had little influence on aeronautical engineering and exciting new areas of technology where engineers are successfully borrowing ideas from animals .
hardcover rutgers university press 2009 isbn13 9780813544793 isbn10 0813544793
abridged n isbn 13 9780813544793 number in series 1 number of pages 278 publisher rutgers univ pr release date 62135769600000