The aerial movement of man-made creations and those of the natural world is easily witnessed, but an understanding of what is involved in such achievements is not always immediately obvious. This book is aimed at providing a descriptive treatment of this subject matter to help with this understanding, without involving, in any way, the sort of esoteric and formulaic treatments to be found in the purely scientific literature.To understand what makes flight possible does require an appreciation of the environment in which such aerial movement can take place. This environment, and the air and water that provide its life giving properties to so many life forms, is discussed first in terms of its behaviour and response to inputs of various kinds. An appreciation of these features is helpful in any discussion involving the movement of air and water, and the movement of aircraft, birds, bats, insects and seeds in these environments.The movement of man-made aircraft is, in a sense, a relatively simple matter when compared with what is achieved by creatures of the natural world. The intricacies of flapping-winged flight are a completely different matter. Attempts to replicate this with mechanical devices present an extreme challenge to human ingenuity, as is made clear.The book should be accessible to those with perhaps more than just a passing interest in various forms of flight, with much use made of diagrams and figures to illustrate what appears to be going on in the related circumstances.
About the Author: ABOUT THE AUTHOR Francis Michael Burrows, M.Sc.(Cranfield)., Ph.D.(Cantab). Whitworth Fellow, Honorary College Fellow of the University College of North Wales. Education: St John's College Choir School, Cambridge 1942-45. Chorister St John's College Chapel 1942-46. Cambridgeshire Technical College and School of Art 1945- 47. Full Engineering Workshop Craft Apprenticeship at the Cambridge University Engineering Laboratory 1947-53. Apprentice Prizes and Technical State Scholarship 1953. M.Sc. in Aerodynamics, College of Aeronautics Cranfield 1955; Wh. F. (Whitworth Fellow 1956); Ph. D in Aeronautics, St John's College, Cambridge 1962. Work experience: Flight Test Department at Handley Page Ltd, Radlett, 1954; Flight Research at the Department of Aerophysics, Mississippi State College 1957; Lectures in Aerodynamics at Hatfield College of Technology 1957-58: to the R.A.F. for the Cambridge University Board of Extra-mural Studies 1958. At Cranfield: Research Fellow in the Department of Flight; lectures in aircraft flight testing and flight aerodynamics, including flight-test laboratories 1959-62, whilst also receiving pilot training, 1954-56 and 1959-1962; Department of Aircraft Design; lectures in aircraft design aerodynamics and Deputy Warden of The College of Aeronautics 1962-64. 1964-2015: Lecturer in pure and applied mathematics, computer science, statistics, and logic, jointly and severally at: the University College of North Wales, Westminster School, London Guildhall University, Regent's College and the London Campuses of Ithaca University, Webster University, Notre Dame University, and Pepperdine University. Professor of Mathematics, Computing and Head of the Department of Science in the British American College at Regents College, London 1994-2008. Honorary Secretary of The Whitworth Society 1988-2011. Research publications include various papers on aerodynamics, theory of machines, seed dispersal and properties of plant growth, computer science etc. Book contributions to Seed Dispersal (Ed. D. Murray) Academic Press; Low-Dimensional Topology (Eds R. Brown & T. Thickstun), Cambridge University Press;; B.B.C. Radio 4 broadcast 'Can pianos fly' (August 1995); The Whitworth Register (Ed.) 1998, 2008 & 2012, The Whitworth Society.