Flying at no mechanical energy cost: disclosing the secret of wandering albatrosses.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Sachs G
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3434196 | biostudies-literature | 2012
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Flying at no mechanical energy cost: disclosing the secret of wandering albatrosses.
Sachs Gottfried G Traugott Johannes J Nesterova Anna P AP Dell'Omo Giacomo G Kümmeth Franz F Heidrich Wolfgang W Vyssotski Alexei L AL Bonadonna Francesco F
PloS one 20120905 9
Albatrosses do something that no other birds are able to do: fly thousands of kilometres at no mechanical cost. This is possible because they use dynamic soaring, a flight mode that enables them to gain the energy required for flying from wind. Until now, the physical mechanisms of the energy gain in terms of the energy transfer from the wind to the bird were mostly unknown. Here we show that the energy gain is achieved by a dynamic flight manoeuvre consisting of a continually repeated up-down c ...[more]
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