lotnictwo: Gliding flight

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

Gliding flight is heavier-than-air flight without the use of thrust; the term volplaning also refers to this mode of flight in animals. It is employed by gliding animals and by aircraft such as gliders. This mode of flight involves flying a significant distance horizontally compared to its descent and therefore can be distinguished from a mostly straight downward descent like a round parachute. Although the human application of gliding flight usually refers to aircraft designed for this purpose, most powered aircraft are capable of gliding without engine power. As with sustained flight, gliding generally requires the application of an airfoil, such as the wings on aircraft or birds, or the…

Evidence: — • authority: 80

Isochrones for minimum time horizontal gliding flight

Evidence: — • authority: 80

Minimum and maximum endurance trajectories for gliding flight in a horizontal plane

Evidence: — • authority: 80

Analytical solution for horizontal gliding flight

Evidence: — • authority: 80

Comparison of simulation and experimental data for a gliding parachute in dynamic flight

Evidence: — • authority: 80

Simulation studies of the flight dynamics of gliding parachute systems

Evidence: — • authority: 72

A parachute is a device designed to slow an object's descent through an atmosphere by creating drag or aerodynamic lift. It is primarily used to safely support people exiting aircraft at height, but also serves various purposes like slowing cargo, aiding in space capsule recovery on Earth, landing spacecraft on other planets, and stabilizing vehicles or objects. Modern parachutes are typically made from durable fabrics like nylon and come in various shapes, such as dome-shaped, rectangular, and inverted domes, depending on their specific function. The concept of the parachute dates back to ancient attempts at flight. In AD 852, Armen Firman, in Córdoba, Spain, made the first recorded jump w…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Wingsuit flying, also called wingsuiting, is flight in free fall using a specialized suit with fabric wings between the arms and torso and between the legs. The added surface area reduces vertical speed and increases horizontal speed, producing a controllable glide while restricting part of the jumper's normal range of motion. A wingsuit flight may begin from an aircraft or from a fixed BASE object and normally ends with parachute deployment. Aircraft and fixed-object flights use different exit procedures, equipment and training. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) recognizes wingsuit performance flying and acrobatic flying as international competition disciplines. Performance…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

This is a list of the average and fastest flight speeds achieved by birds. A bird's velocity is necessarily variable; a hunting bird will reach much greater speeds while diving to catch prey than when flying horizontally. The bird that can achieve the greatest speed is the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), able to exceed 320 km/h (200 mph) in its dives. A close relative of the common swift, the white-throated needletail (Hirundapus caudacutus), is commonly reported as the fastest bird in level flight with a reported top speed of 169 km/h (105 mph). This record remains unconfirmed as the measurement methods have never been published or verified. The record for the fastest confirmed level…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

In flight dynamics, a spin is a special category of stall resulting in autorotation (uncommanded roll) about the aircraft's longitudinal axis and a shallow, rotating, downward path approximately centred on a vertical axis. Spins can be entered intentionally or unintentionally, from any flight attitude if the aircraft has sufficient yaw while at the stall point. In a normal spin, the wing on the inside of the turn stalls while the outside wing remains flying. It is possible for both wings to stall, but the angle of attack of each wing, and consequently its lift and drag, are different. Either situation causes the aircraft to autorotate toward the stalled wing due to its higher drag and loss…

Evidence: — • authority: 92

Flight energetics of barn swallows across speeds: high aerodynamic efficiency, but low energy conversion efficiency.. Bird flight conversion efficiency (η) determines the amount of metabolic power (Pmet) transformed into mechanical power (Pmech) to remain aloft, and it is central to understanding animal flight energetics, yet it remains difficult to quantify. Using 13C-labelled sodium bicarbonate (NaBi) and particle image velocimetry (PIV), we measured Pmet and Pmech, respectively, in un-instrumented barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) flying across 7.8 to 13.6 m s-1 in a wind tunnel. Both Pmet and Pmech showed the expected U-shaped relationship with airspeed. Whole-animal η showed a shallow pe…

Evidence: — • authority: 92

The squirrel barrier concept and its bearing on the evolution of aerial mammals.. Three vertebrate lineages conquered powered fight in different epochs of the Phanerozoic: pterosaurs, dinosaurs (birds) and mammals (bats). The evolutionary mechanisms proposed for the demanding transition to powered flight have been contentious. For mammals, recent evidence suggests that the Darwinian hypothesis of a gliding transition is supported, based on aerodynamic and paleo-atmosphere reconstructions. However, it is surprising that the many (at least 12) confirmed, independent lineages of gliding mammals that existed since the Jurassic to the present never evolved powered flight. To explain this, Pennyc…