Gorgeous new research highlights some of the differences between fixed-wing flight and birds. Researchers trained a barn owl, tawny owl, and goshawk to glide through a cloud of helium-filled bubbles Keep reading
Tag: wingtip vortices
Vortices and Ground Effect
Though typically unseen, the vortices that swirl from the tips of aircraft wings are powerful. Here you see a Hawker Sea Fury equipped with a smoke system used to visualize Keep reading
Seeing the Wake
Hot exhaust gases churn in the wake of this climbing B-1B Lancer. The high temperature of the exhaust changes the density and, thus, the refractive index of the gases relative Keep reading
Sunset Vortices
Often our atmosphere’s transparency masks the beautiful flows around us. This spectacular image shows a flight landing in Munich just after sunrise. Low-hanging clouds get sliced by the airplane’s passage Keep reading
Quad Copter Schlieren
Schlieren photography is a classic method of flow visualization that utilizes small variations in density (or temperature) to make otherwise unseen air motion visible. Because changing air’s density or temperature Keep reading
Crow Instability
Watching airplane contrails overhead, you may have noticed them transform into a daisy chain of distorted rings. This is an effect known as the Crow instability. The contrails themselves are Keep reading
Wingtip Vortices Visualized
In flight, airplane wings produce dramatic wingtip vortices. These vortices reduce the amount of lift a 3D wing produces relative to a 2D one. How much they influence the lift Keep reading
Helicopter Tip Vortices
Airplanes and other fixed-wing aircraft produce wingtip vortices as a result of their finite length. Rotor blades, like those on helicopters, produce the effect as well. Both wings and rotors Keep reading
Wingtip Vortices
Wingtip vortices are the result of high-pressure air from beneath a wing sneaking around the end of the wing to the low-pressure area on top. They trail for long distances Keep reading
Crow Instability
Behind airplanes in flight, water vapor from the engine exhaust will sometimes condense in the wingtip vortices, thereby forming visible contrails. The two initially parallel vortex lines are unstable and Keep reading