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> The Andean condor has a 3-metre (10ft) wingspan and weighs up to 15kg (33lbs), making it the world’s heaviest soaring bird. With a wingspan this large and a
by HenryKissinger 6y ago
> The Andean condor has a 3-metre (10ft) wingspan and weighs up to 15kg (33lbs), making it the world’s heaviest soaring bird.
With a wingspan this large and a weight this low, the Andean corridor must generate enough lift by itself.
Tl;dr It's a biological aircraft.
- StavrosK 6y agoAren't aircraft mechanical birds, though?
- iso1631 6y agoI don't know any aircraft that propel themselves by moving wings.
- samvher 6y agoCheck out http://www.delfly.nl/ http://www.delfly.nl/ It's pretty small, but a very cool concept nonetheless.
- kitd 6y agoWow! never seen that before. That's incredible.
- dragonwriter 6y ago> I don't know any aircraft that propel themselves by moving wings. Well, there are helicopters, of course, and—less common but more what you probably had in mind—ornithopters, both of which using moving—rotary in the first case, flapping in the second—wings.
- StavrosK 6y agoAs an aside, helicopter rotors are an ingenious design. The principle is brilliant.
- StavrosK 6y agoThey're called ornithopters, check this out: https://youtu.be/0E77j1imdhQ https://youtu.be/0E77j1imdhQ
- decafninja 6y agoDune! Sadly most of the depiction of 'thopters in Dune media have not been 'thopters but boring generic VTOLs. I think the only place where they actually had real bird-like 'thopters was the Dune RTS games.