![]() Dad learned to sail on Lake Mendota, eventually graduating to the large sailing dinghies called E Scows. He developed these interests between the ages of 10 and 13 in Madison, Wisconsin. My father gifted me the skill set to harness the power of wind and wave, while sharing with me his two great passions, sailing and birding. Harnessing the Windįor me, observing seabirds provides constant inspiration and has helped me learn to “fly” as a sailor. ![]() Today, complex models emulating seabird dynamic soaring are being used to inspire wind-powered, autonomous drones that could collect valuable oceanographic data. Through observations of flying birds, both da Vinci and Rayleigh gained insight and inspiration, suggesting that the ability to extract energy from the wind would bode well for the prospect of human flight. Only recently did it come to light that buried within da Vinci's codex on bird flight were drawings and descriptions of flight patterns and the processes underlying them that are consistent with dynamic soaring. Nobel physicist Lord Rayleigh is often cited as the first to describe dynamic soaring in birds, and indeed he was the first to publish a model of the process in 1883.Ĭenturies earlier, though, Leonardo da Vinci also pondered this process. People have been marveling at seabirds, especially the larger ones, for centuries. Reprinted courtesy of The Royal Society of the History of Science. Timeless Wonderĭa Vinci's plan view sketch illustrating northward across-wind dynamic soaring (from right to left) of a flock of four birds along an undulating flight path. My hope is, too, that they will always be around, and the link between mariners and marine birds may be a tie that helps make this possible. ![]() The marvelous flight of albatrosses and other seabirds runs like a thread through my life, not just because I dedicate my professional life to conserving these creatures, but because they inspire me, as they have many others through the years. Albatrosses could not do what they do - in essence, could not exist - without this capacity. The result is an arcing flight pattern during which the bird gains altitude by soaring into the wind, banks vertically in the stronger wind 10 to 30 feet above the surface, then drives downward with increased velocity to carry it toward its destination, before turning into another upwind maneuver farther along, then repeating the process. Dynamic soaring is a complex mechanism by which seabirds utilize wind shear - the variation in wind speed above the ocean surface - to extract energy and fly without flapping, with virtually no energy cost to themselves. How can a bird that weighs on average 16 pounds, in the case of the Wandering Albatross, skim over large portions of the globe with ease? Two words: dynamic soaring.
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