Nature's Flying Machines

Turbulence and Flying Machines

54 RESONANCE ⎜ November 1999 This article is intended to introduce the young reader to the relationship between flight and fluid dynamics. It begins with a somewhat detailed discussion of what makes flight possible. Following this is a description of the effect of the nature of the flow on the drag. The connection between flow stability and drag-reduction, which is a topic of current interest i...

Those magnificent men and their flying machines.

Architectural fabrication of tensile structures with flying machines

The paper presents a manufacturing process for the erection of tensile structures with flying robots. Analogies are drawn to existing methods of aerial construction and robotic fabrication in architecture. Firstly, we describe a set of aerial building instructions for the vehicles, such as an assembly of a node and the erection of a link. Secondly, we investigate combinations of these instructi...

The Natures of Nonconfigurationality

Population, development, and human natures

At the dawn of this new millennium, the human enterprise is quickly becoming a globally unified one. Yet numerous obstacles and pitfalls remain in the path of a full and fair unification. A substantial fraction of the world’s population is well-off and increasingly connected through trade and communications systems. But an even larger fraction is struggling to make ends meet and is only sketchi...