November 5, 2011 at 9:35 pm
Canopy ants use “directed aerial descent” to return to their home tree trunk when they fall from a branch. They were the first known case of gliding in an insect with no wings— a completely unexpected discovery. They also glide intentionally backwards toward the tree, with their abdomen (gaster) leading and their head tailing, which […]
October 21, 2011 at 5:31 pm
We’ve seen many different gliders from the animal world throughout this course. But as children, our first experiences with gliding probably came from paper planes. As a kid, I remember learning lots of different designs for planes, in an effort to make them fly farther and stay in the air longer. But there are actually […]
October 19, 2011 at 8:51 pm
Sugar Gliders are quickly becoming one of the most popular pets in the country. In all but four states you can take these furry little flyers home to perform tricks like these for you. But how do they achieve such controlled glides, as seen in the video’s best trick? A sugar glider’s method of aerial […]
October 17, 2011 at 7:44 pm
We have looked at the final solutions so far of nature and flight. However, they had to have a beginning somewhere. There were two theories about how flight evolved around the time of dinosaurs. The first was that flight evolved from dinosaurs running very fast, and then eventually became more and more aerodynamic, and finally […]
October 13, 2011 at 12:11 pm
In 1971 Paul MacCready founded AeroVironment, Inc.. Considered the father of human powered flight, MacCready went on to invent flying devices with his company ranging in everything from solar powered flight to the Gossamer Condor, which flew over the 23-mile long English Channel off of only the power of an onboard cyclist. And as the […]