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How do birds' tails work? Delta-wing theory fails to predict tail shape during flight

In English

Författare

Summary, in English

Birds appear to use their tails during flight, but until recently the aerodynamic role that tails fulfil was largely unknown. In recent years delta-wing theory, devised to predict the aerodynamics of high-performance aircraft, has been applied to the tails of birds and has been successful in providing a model for the aerodynamics of a birds tail. This theory now provides the conventional explanation for how birds tails work. A delta-wing theory (slender-wing theory) has been used, as part of a variable-geometry model to predict how tail and wing shape should vary during flight at different airspeeds. We tested these predictions using barn swallows flying in a wind tunnel. We show that the predictions are not quantitatively well supported. This suggests that a new theory or a modified version of delta-wing theory is needed to adequately explain the way in which morphology varies during flight.

Publiceringsår

2002

Språk

Engelska

Sidor

1053-1057

Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie

Royal Society of London. Proceedings B. Biological Sciences

Volym

269

Issue

1495

Dokumenttyp

Artikel i tidskrift

Förlag

Royal Society Publishing

Ämne

  • Biological Sciences

Status

Published

Forskningsgrupp

  • Animal Flight Lab

ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt

  • ISSN: 1471-2954