A different kind of flying machine

The flying abilities of even the most prosaic bird put airplane maneuvers to shame, experts at the University of Montana Flight Laboratory say in a New York Times story called “Flying machines, amazing at any angle.” The story quotes Dr. Kenneth Dial, who founded the lab in 1988: “Birds can do some pretty spectacular things. They can go from 40 miles an hour to zero and land on a branch that’s moving, all in a couple of seconds. It’s inspiring.” Experts at the lab “are obsessed with trying to bridge the gap in flying abilities between humans and birds,” the story reports. Read it here.