Publisher's Synopsis
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.
