When birds come in for a landing, they pitch back and heave their wings as they come to a stop in a perching maneuver. Some birds, researchers noticed, partially fold Keep reading
Tag: swept wing
Flow on Commercial Wings
Even in an era of supercomputers, there is a place for quick and dirty methods of flow visualization. Here we see a model of a swept wing like those seen on Keep reading
Why Do Backwards Wings Exist?
Over the years, there have been many odd airplane designs, but one you probably haven’t seen much is the forward-swept wing. While most early aircraft featured straight wings, rear-swept wings are Keep reading
Icing on Airplane Wings
Icing on airplane wings remains little understood and a major hazard. These photos show examples of ice formation along the leading edge of a swept wing. If an aircraft flies Keep reading
Flow Over Swept Wings
Flow over a swept wing behaves very differently than a straight fixed wing or an airfoil. Instead of flowing straight along the chord of the wing in a two-dimensional fashion, Keep reading