Re: Science feather strength debate

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

On Tue, Nov 16th, 2010 at 2:45 AM, Mike Habib <habib@jhmi.edu> wrote:

> It is also worth noting that the inboard wing is more involved in weight 
> support of the animal,
> while the outboard wing is more involved in the production of the thrust 
> component of lift (note
> that in flying animals thrust is just a forward component of the lift, which 
> is itself just the
> component of fluid force perpendicular to flow).
> 
> Without a complete wing inboard, there is a significant loss of weight 
> support, as a result. 
> There is also a substantial increase in induced drag, as the inboard wing 
> then represents a
> second, broad, "wingtip" around which a downwash can form.  This further 
> changes the flow on 
the
> wing because it tends to shut down spanwise flow, which then weakens certain 
> forms of vortex
> stabilization on the wing.

If the tail was also generating lift, could it have partially compensated for a 
lack of tertials? 

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
Spatial Data Analyst               Australian Dinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia               http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
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