Borrowing tricks from birds may result in smoother flights
Wings that morph and flap will also save money
While chatting to a customer in the family bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, Wilbur Wright was idly twisting a piece of cardboard that had once contained an inner tube, when he came up with an idea. The “semi-rigid” way in which the cardboard could be deformed yet still retain its stiffness might, he considered, provide an answer to a little problem he was working on with his brother Orville: how to design a wing for a heavier-than-air flying machine.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “O for the wings of an albatross”
From the June 4th 2022 edition
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