{{U}} (31) {{/U}}nearly a hundred years of powered flight, scientists are still trying to figure out how birds fly.
Researchers have learned that the slapping noise pigeons make when they suddenly take off is the sound of super charged lift. They call it the "clap fling" effect.
Here at SRI International scientists try to duplicate the pigeons' thrust. A flashing strobe reveals the secret.
Scott Stanford, a scientist at SRI, says, You re looking at the clap fling effect, where the two wings will come together and peel apart{{U}} (32) {{/U}}each other, thus augmenting lift{{U}} (33) {{/U}}drawing air from the top to the bottom. "
This mechanical bug won't get off the ground.{{U}} (34) {{/U}}its flapping wings demonstrate a potential propulsion system for robotic birds: man-made rubbery muscle.
Roy Kornbluh works at SRI. "There, I'm turning the voltage on and off, and you can see when the voltage is on, the material is larger{{U}} (35) {{/U}}when the voltage is off."
Super computers show high-speed airflows over supersonic aircraft.
But scientists have only begun to see how air flows{{U}} (36) {{/U}}really low speeds.
Professor Max Platzer of the Naval Postgraduate School, says, "The flapping wing is generating a thrust, this way, this is the basic physics of the phenomenon."
It's pelicans--not pigeons--the Navy is looking at. The Navy is looking at the smooth easy flight of pelicans low over water--called "ground effect." Researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School are trying to imitate the pelican's efficiency.
Assistant Professor Kevin Jones of the Naval Postgraduate School says, "{{U}} (37) {{/U}}flapping the wings, symmetrically, we're{{U}} (38) {{/U}}effect imitating ground effect. We now have the same feature a bird sees when it's flying, over a ground plane."
An electric motor drives the flapping wings. Researchers here are working{{U}} (39) {{/U}}ways to beam power to the tiny bird.
David Jenn of the Naval Postgraduate School says, "There's no battery inside of here, so we're going to set this inside the radar beam, and the energy is extracted from the radar beam and will be used to propel the motor."
Scientists are learning it's one thing to build an airplane,{{U}} (40) {{/U}}quite another to build a bird.