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Flight in nature I: Take-off in animal flyers

Part of:The RAeS Written Paper Prizes 2016

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2016

R.A. Jiménez Manzanera and
H. Smith
H. Smith*
Affiliation:
School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing, Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK
*
howard.smith@cranfield.ac.uk
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Abstract

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In this review paper, several take-off techniques of different species of animal flyers and gliders, both extinct and extant, are analysed. The methods they use vary according to animal group and size. Smaller animals, such as insects, rely on the use of transient aerodynamic techniques or the use of stored elastic energy. Medium-size flyers such as birds, bats, and other mammal gliders initiate flight by a jump which involves leg and wing movement coordination. The largest animals to fly, the extinct pterosaurs, are believed to have used a combination of aerodynamic and mechanic techniques in order to become airborne. The information presented here can be used as a resource for novel biomimetic unmanned aircraft design.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 119 , Issue 1213 , March 2015, pp. 257 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 2015

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