Posted on 11/24/2013 4:54:12 PM PST by BenLurkin
There were all manner of wild, Jules-Vernish contraptions known as ornithopters prior to successful human flight.
Was sitting on my front porch in Alabama one night when a Great Horned Owl flew thru the porch from end to end. About three wing beats carried him across the 44' distance...and I never heard a sound, yet he was no more than 6' overhead.
Awesome experience. I'll never forget it.
Fully understand the expression "a hole in the ambient sound..."
Piotr Ufimisev, the Russian physicist who developed the Physical theory of diffraction for calculation of radar reflections, pointed out that the same methods could also be used for acoustic phenomena.
Hand held orthinopters are still available from the better class of toy store.
I am still hoping for the autogyro to make a comeback.
What’s the frequency, Kenneth?
Anyways, the silent air assaults may be numbered, since a couple of new products will make possible a completely passive and invisible takedown of anything flying, flapping or hovering.
Not a forcefield, but almost as good as. And cheap.
Perhpas a really "silent wing" could help.
It’s the 2014 Hooters calendar out yet?
Looks like New Year's Eve is on a Tuesday night.
...is the actual father of stealth aircraft. He took his work to the Kremlin, who evaluated his work against the backdrop of the lack of Soviet computing power which led them to conclude that any airframe based on his work would not be airworthy and therefore had no military value whatsoever. So they let him take his work and do whatever he wanted to with it.
The interesting thing was that they were right! But that was because they hadn't developed computerized fly-by-wire systems which take an unstable design and make it airworthy. We had those. And this led to the development of the F-117 Nighthawk.
Every time I saw an owl fly by in the twilight, I noticed how quiet they appeared to be. It wasn’t that other comparably sized birds were so noisy but there was something about the owl in flight that seemed remarkably quiet.
“I now I’ll never forget it...and yes, the silence, speed and economy of the owl’s movements was both sublime and eerie...”
I was about 10 years old at my uncle’s cabin in Wisconsin. Out in the woods in the winter by myself taking a stroll on the snowshoes just as it was getting dark. A huge owl, guessing a great-horned owl, flew towards me at a bit of an angle through the alders. The woods were thick with their thin, leaf-less branches. The silence of the owl itself was amazing, but it also missed hitting all of those branches as it flew past. It really was like a ghost.
My neighborhood has several owls living there and you can hear them hooting almost every night.
I thought I saw a ghost this year when a white owl flew across the street from the wires on one side to pick up a small rodent. It scooped up the rodent and flew past. Seeing it out of the corner of my eye, I didn’t know what it was and the next night I saw it perched on the same wire it took off from. When it saw me, it passed overhead without a sound and it seemed to remove all sound from the night as it went by.
It was amazing and a delight to see them and hear them as they hoot and respond to each other. It amazes me to witness these wonderful creatures living close by. Such grace and beauty are truly more than a work of art.
And if you see them, you cannot shoot them.
Spotted owls are protected.
Well I have to admit that an owl would have trouble lifting a lab, even one of those big white barn owls. You’re probably right he just wanted to see what was up or maybe it did it just for fun.
There is plenty of noise from the wings, but you are correct that it is usually overwhelmed by engine sound. Gliders aren't silent.
If you've ever stood under a competition sailplane doing a high-speed, low pass you know that sound energy off an airframe is not an insignificant thing. Another example is an aerobatic airplane doing a power-off dive. If only 100 or so yards away, it is LOUD! If you want an aircraft to be audibly stealthy, you work on all sound-generating aspects, not just the engines.
I was camped beside the C&O Canal towpath not far from Harper’s Ferry one night in the full moon and a huge owl launched itself off of a tree branch and swooped about ten feet over my head. It was completely soundless, and cast a spooky dark shadow in the moonlight.
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