Pterosaur-inspired aircraft makes sharper turns
June 15, 2011
Physorg.com - (PhysOrg.com) -- By morphing and repositioning a small aircraft's vertical tail to resemble the cranial crest of a pterosaur, researchers have shown that the aircraft's turn radius can be reduced by 14%. The ability to make sharper turns is especially important for small aircraft that operate in urban environments and in the presence of obstacles.
(PhysOrg.com) -- By morphing and repositioning a small aircraft's vertical tail to resemble the cranial crest of a pterosaur, researchers have shown that the aircraft's turn radius can be reduced by 14%. The ability to make sharper turns is especially important for small aircraft that operate in urban environments and in the presence of obstacles.
The team of researchers, Brian Roberts and Rick Lind from the University of Florida, along with Sankar Chatterjee from Texas Tech University, has published the study on the pterosaur-inspired aircraft in a recent issue of Bioinspiration & Biomimetics.
Although birds and bats are the only tetrapods that are currently capable of powered flight, the first vertebrates to achieve flight were pterosaurs. These flying reptiles (not technically dinosaurs) appeared about 225 million years ago and became extinct along with the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. For those 160 million years, pterosaurs ranging in size from 12 grams to 70 kilograms roamed the skies. One thing they all likely had in common was a large, plate-like cranial crest on the tops of their heads.