Arboreal animals negotiate a highly three-dimensional world that is discontinuous on many spatial scales. As the scale of substrate discontinuity increases, many arboreal animals rely on leaping or gliding locomotion between distant supports. In order to successfully move through their habitat, gliding animals must actively modulate both propulsive and aerodynamic forces. Here we examined the t...

In an earlier paper the authors describe experimental investigation to measure forces on 1/20th scale vehicles in long platoons, together with flow field around using University of Birmingham moving model TRAIN rig facility, that can accommodate 8-vehicle platoons and provide a realistic ground simulation. This analyses results further look at unsteady flows. Using conventional Fourier spectral...

We used a combination of high-speed 3-D kinematics and three-axis accelerometer recordings obtained from cockatiels flying in a low-turbulence wind tunnel to characterize the instantaneous accelerations and, by extension, the net aerodynamic forces produced throughout the wingbeat cycle across a broad range of flight speeds (1-13 m s(-1)). Our goals were to investigate the variation in instanta...

At first sight, echolocating bats face a difficult trade-off. As flying animals, they would benefit from a streamlined geometric shape to reduce aerodynamic drag and increase flight efficiency. However, as echolocating animals, their pinnae generate the acoustic cues necessary for navigation and foraging. Moreover, species emitting sound through their nostrils often feature elaborate noseleaves...

Flapping wings enable flying animals and biomimetic robots to generate elevated aerodynamic forces. Measurements that demonstrate this capability are based on experiments with tethered robots and animals, and indirect force calculations based on measured kinematics or airflow during free flight. Remarkably, there exists no method to measure these forces directly during free flight. Such in vivo...

The steady and unsteady aerodynamic behaviour of a sailing yacht is investigated in this work by using full-scale testing on a Stewart 34. The aerodynamic forces developed by the yacht in real time are derived from knowledge of the differential pressures across the sails and the sail shape. Experimental results are compared with numerical computation and good agreement was found.

3D techniques are increasingly used in aerospace industry to improve quality and performance of aircrafts. This paper presents a 3D imaging technique for studying the aerodynamic shape and flight performance of micro air vehicles. 3D stereoscopic vision, based upon stroboscopic imaging, was utilized to obtain the 3D information of the aircraft’s flexible aerodynamic surface. The aircraft models...