How Albatrosses fly such vast distances - tacking upwind

2:04 PM Tue 5 Apr 2011 GMT

'Albatross' Click Here to view large photo

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution discovers Albatrosses tack upwind The answer, says Philip L. Richardson of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), lies in a concept called dynamic soaring, in which the large bird utilizes the power of above-ocean wind shear while tacking like an airborne sailboat. An oceanographer may be offering the best explanation yet of one of the great mysteries of flight-how albatrosses fly such vast distances, even around the world, almost without flapping their wings. 'I have a simple model that explains the basic physics of what albatrosses do,' says Richardson, a scientist emeritus at WHOI, who, in ...

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by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution