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Tuesday, November 5
Things That Fly: The Similarities and Differences
Flying animals have unique aspects of their anatomy and behavior
that make taking flight look easy. Aerodynamic requirements dictate
the success of flight and, as a result, flying animals and flying
machines have many characteristics in common.
Geoffrey R. Spedding, associate professor, Departments of
Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern
California, will speak on "The Aerodynamics of Almost Everything"
at a colloquium at 2 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 5, at NASA Langley's
Pearly Young Theater.
Media Briefing: A media briefing will be held at 1:15
p.m. in the news room at the Pearl Young Theater, 5 North Dryden
St., at NASA Langley Research Center. Members of the media who wish
to attend should contact Kimberly W. Land at (757) 864-9885 for
credentials.
Spedding will survey things that fly, looking for similarities
and differences, and searching for reasons for both. His talk will
focus on why birds flap their wings in flight, while airplanes do
not. Also, he will outline some general lessons for
biologically-inspired engineering design of small-scale flying
machines.
Spedding received his doctoral degree from the University of
Bristol, England, in 1981. His current research interests include
the unsteady aerodynamic mechanisms in natural and engineered
flight, and the initial development of surface waves by wind over
water. Spedding has authored over 16 journal publications, book
chapters and technical papers distributed to the scientific
community, some of which are being used in laboratories
worldwide.
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