This book outlines the principles of flight, of birds in
particular. It 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.
The Flight program, presented on the companion website, generates
performance curves for flapping and gliding flight, and simulations
of long-distance migration and accounts successfully for the
consumption of muscles and other tissues during migratory flights.
The program is effectively a working model of a flying bird (or bat
or pterosaur) and is the skeleton around which the book is built.
The book provides a wider background and then explains how Flight
works and shows how to set up and test hypotheses generated by the
program.
The book and the program are based on adapting the conventional
(and well-tested) thinking of aeronautical engineers to the
biological problems of bird flight. Their primary aim is to
convince biologists that this is the appropriate way to handle
problems that involve flight, to make the engineering background
accessible to biologists, and to provide a tool kit in the shape of
the Flight program, which they can use to solve practical problems
involving bird flight and migration. In addition, the book will be
readily accessible to engineers who want to know how birds work,
and should be of interest to the ever-growing community working on
flapping "micro air vehicles" (MAVs). The program can be used to
predict the flight performance and capabilities of reconstructed
fossil birds and pterosaurs, flying in ancient atmospheres that
differ from present conditions, and also, of course, to predict and
account for the results of experiments and observations on living
birds and bats.
* An up to date work by the world's leading expert on bird
flight
* Examines the biology and biomechanics of bird flight with added
reference to the flight of bats and pterosaurs.
* Uses proven aeronautical principles to help solve biological
issues in understanding and predicting the flight capabilities of
birds and other vertebrates.
* Provides insights into the evolution of flight and the likely
capabilities of extinct birds and reptiles.
* Gives a detailed explanation of the science behind, and use of,
the author's predictive bird flight simulation program - Flight -
which is available on a companion website.
* Presents often difficult concepts in easily understood
language.
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