flight

Have you ever wanted to fly? To soar above valleys and mountains, cities and oceans, feeling the wind whipping against...

Aerospread Managing Director Bruce Peterson isn’t just a businessman and pilot. Bruce is an innovative ‘backyard engineer’ whose work to develop topdressing plane components and software...

Position: Director, Aeronavics Ltd. Field: Aerial robotics Background knowledge and experience Linda Bulk, Director and General Manager/CEO of Aeronavics Limited, initially intended to pursue a career...

Drones, UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), droids, flying robots – no matter what you call them, they are fast becoming the latest must-have technology. Need to check...

A DNA study of extinct elephant bird specimens held at Wellington’s Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa have revealed the birds to be the kiwi’s...

Hypersonic vehicles are perhaps a dream of the future, but if they have a chance of happening, research is important to develop materials that will handle...

Flight was a topic our writer Barbara Ryan enjoyed teaching. "We got really involved – twice I invited Patrick Monro (inventor and flight enthusiast) to come...

People have long had an obsession with flight. Characters from legends and fairy tales often have the surprising ability to take off from the solid Earth...

One of the requirements for heavier-than-air flying machines is a structure that combines strength with light weight. This is true for birds as well as planes....

For a plane or bird to fly, its wings must produce enough lift to equal its weight. Most wings used in flight are a special shape...

Hang-gliders are unpowered aircraft. They maintain flight by employing a flying surface (wing) called an aerofoil. While powered aircraft use their own power source (motor and...

People have always tried to imitate birds. People in legends and fairytales have been able to magically fly, and ancient Chinese, Persians, Romans, Arabs, monks, scholars,...

Position: Post-doctoral researcher, Conservation Ecology Group, The University of Groningen (formerly a PhD student at Massey University). Field: Ornithology Jesse Conklin spends his time researching things...

Position: Associate Professor, School of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University. Field: Ornithology. Dr Phil Battley lectures at Massey University. He combines teaching zoology to students, doing...

Gliders and kites both have wings to generate lift. A glider’s wings are aerofoils. Well made kites are also aerofoil wings, which gives them lift. Gliders...

Wing shapes and sizes of both birds and planes determine how they might perform or what they might be capable of (for example, gliding, sustained high...

You can tell a great deal about how a bird lives or what a plane has been designed for just from its wing shape and size....

For thousands of years, people have wanted to fly. Our legends and fairy tales are full of humans and animals that can fly – effortlessly gliding...

Research on godwit migration involves tracking or following the flight path of the birds. Scientists like Dr Phil Battley and Dr Jesse Conklin from Massey University...

Bar-tailed godwits can fly about 12,000 km at one time – further than any other known bird. This recent discovery excited ornithologists around the world. Dr...

All flying objects have some things in common. For some things, it is easy to decide if they are flying or not – a bird, a...

Have you ever wanted to fly? To soar above valleys and mountains, cities and oceans, feeling the wind whipping against your face? Flight has fascinated humans...

An inquiry approach is a method often used in science education. The question bank provides an initial list of questions on flight and places where their...

Use this timeline to find out some highlights in the progression of flight in human history. 1000 BCE – First kites Kites are invented in China....

What is flight? People have different ideas about what flies. Our resources explore winged flight through birds, planes, gliders, hang-gliders and kites. This resource provides explanations...