Dynamic Soaring Viewed from Similarity Law

Abstract

The Dynamic Soaring is the soaring technique making use of the wind gradient. The order, Albatross belongs to, includes several species which use this technique and have various scale. Main conclusion is as follows: They practice almost physically similar dynamic soaring. The larger one practices a larger dynamic soaring and requires a stronger wind than the smaller one does, in the wind near the sea surface. Such a scale effect corresponds with the fact that a Wandering Albatross lives in the zone of the westerlies of the Southern hemisphere; on the other hand, a Streaked Shearwater which is smaller than it lives in areas where it is not so windy. But if the wind profile was almost linear, the said relation between the scale of a bird and the wind strength would be reversed. © 1984, The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers. All rights reserved.