Without the aerodynamic forces of lift and drag, aircraft would be unable to fly, wind turbines would not spin, and countless other machines that we depend on every day would not work. What, exactly, ...

Future aerial design may owe a nod of thanks to five parrotlets flapping around in an instrumented flight chamber at Stanford University. They revealed that counter to conventional understanding of ...

Uplifting structures: the denticles are inspired by the shortfin mako shark. (Courtesy: James Weaver/Harvard University) A shark skin-inspired design can dramatically improve the lift of an aerofoil, ...

There are many ways to describe the forces around sails — in fact, around any foil. One of the most straightforward ways is to split the forces into lift and drag. The lift force is, by definition, ...

Airplane flight is one of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century. The invention of the airplane allows people to travel from one side of the planet to the other in less ...

Late Model Racecraft, out of Houston, Texas, recently had just such an opportunity to harness the air- and brain-power of GM's world-class wind tunnel facility-properly known as the Aero Lab-for a ...