BioPhysics of an Eagle's flight

in #science7 years ago (edited)

The Eagle's flight is fascinating but how do they navigate Millions of years of natural selection have shaped the wings and skeleton of eagles yielding versatile, robust and effective design solutions for flight following evolutionary pathways with different biophysical constraints needed for them to succeed.

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Their tough hollow and light endoskeleton gives them the talent of liftoff coupled with their aerodynamic shaped forelimbs and body form at a natural critical angle that enables active flight, facilitate feats ranging from non-stop transoceanic migrations to complex manoeuvres for capturing prey.

We all love feathers, the Eagle's feathers enables it roboust and efficient flight. The proximal arm-wing is formed by the humerus and the distal arm-wing by the radius and ulna. These connect via a wrist to the hand wing, which is spanned by digits. The hand and arm bones support the wing's lift generating surfaces and must withstand high compressive and tensile loads, and also resist high torsional loads

When bird flap their wings, they create a vortex, which resembles a micro-tornado flipped sideways. Although the position of the trailing bird varied from second to second, they did spend most of their time with their wings in the updraft of the vortex.
Although the researchers did not measure effort, the bird’s careful positioning is expected to ease flight, They want their wing to be where the air is going up; they want to follow wherever the uplift is.

To the birds, the updraft provides free energy, much like the gift of a tailwind to a bike rider. And the updraft is not just important when the trailing bird’s wing is moving down in the power stroke, says Usherwood. “They probably benefit from wake support all through the flapping cycle.”
On the flip side, staying in the updraft helps the birds shun the downdraft section of the vortex.

For all my story this must be useful to man, the way the bird overcome torsional forces and vortexes are been applied in aeronautics for a safer and more efficient travel.