Offlist.
Mike and I are working on it together. Actually, somewhat independently
and merging our thoughts every few weeks when we come up with anything
interesting. Plan to do a joint presentation at Beijing next year.
The two biggest problems are
1) Initial slippage through the water at the wing finger pivot -- we have
a handle on that, and it's not all that severe a problem.
2) Breaking the initial 'suction' when the neck, body, hindlimbs, and
innermost wing first start to break free of the water. Have thoughts
about that, but I've not quantified it yet -- Mike may have. In any
event, that bit would be quite species specific.
Jim
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Witton" <Mark.Witton@port.ac.uk>
To: <jrccea@bellsouth.net>; <erikboehm07@yahoo.com>
Cc: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 2:54 AM
Subject: Water-bourne pterosaur launch
Chaps,
Quick question: in numerous threads on pterosaur launch there's been
mentions of pterosaurs taking off from water, but, to my knowledge, it's
never really been discussed further. The mechanics of water launching have
to be quite different to those acting on terrestrially-launching critters,
and I've never really been too sure how it would work. Anyone (and I'm
particularly glancing over at Mike and Jim here, seeing as they're
typically the guys saying it can happen) come up with a suitable mechanism
for it?
Back to work.
Mark