Maneuvering Flight Studies

 

As the Wright brothers are thought to have discovered the principle of wing-warping as a means of roll control by watching vultures soar, it isn't surprising, conversely, that descriptions of bird maneuvering have been based traditionally on the principles of the steady-state (i.e. fixed-wing) mechanisms used on airplanes. Film and video evidence suggests that this traditional view is appropriate for birds in gliding flight; that is, to initiate a bank, gliding birds will pronate the inside wing, reducing its angle of attack, and increase the angle of attack of the outside wing by supinating it. Just as would be produced by the ailerons on an airplane, the increased lift on the outside wing and the decreased lift on the inside wing produces a torque that rolls the bird into a bank, re-directing lift laterally into a centripetal force that pulls the bird on curved path. While this method is thought to be routinely employed by birds maneuvering in high speed, fixed-wing flight, the strategies and mechanisms used by birds to maneuver during low-speed, flapping flight were not understood. Studies conducted in the University of Montana Flight Laboratory have sought to more closely examine the aerodynamics and biomechanics of slow, flapping flight - perhaps the most critical and defining flight regime faced by birds.

Warrick, D. R., K. P. Dial, and A. A. Biewener. (1998) Asymmetrical force production in the slow, maneuvering flight of birds. Auk 115: 916-928

Warrick, D. R., K. P. Dial. (1998) Kinematic, aerodynamic, and anatomical mechanisms in the slow, maneuvering flight of pigeons. J. Exp. Biol. 201: 655-672.

Warrick, D. R. (1998) The turning and linear maneuvering performance of birds: the cost of efficiency for coursing insectivores. Can. J. Zool. 76:

Pigeon recovering from inverted and turning (1 mb Quick Time movie)