Soaring
Soaring animals and aircraft may alternate glides with periods of soaring in rising air. Five principal types of lift are used: thermals, ridge lift, lee waves, convergences and dynamic soaring. Dynamic soaring is used predominately by birds, and some model aircraft, though it has also been achieved on rare occasions by piloted aircraft.
Examples of soaring flight by birds are the use of:
- Thermals and convergences by raptors such as vultures
- Ridge lift by gulls near cliffs
- Wave lift by migrating birds
- Dynamic effects near the surface of the sea by albatrosses
For humans, soaring is the basis for three air sports: gliding, hang gliding and paragliding.
Read more about this topic: Gliding Flight
Famous quotes containing the word soaring:
“Think of our little eggshell of a canoe tossing across that great lake, a mere black speck to the eagle soaring above it!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“O Holy Wisdom, Soaring Power, encompass us with wings unfurled,
and carry us, encircling all, above, below, and through the world.”
—Hildegard Von Bingen (1078–1179)
“My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery—always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud. And why? What’s this passion for?”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)