“In Formation”
April 25, 2023
Santa Barbara, CA
A Photo for Friday
“In Formation”
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8 responses to “A Photo for Friday”
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@de stijl: My recollection is that flying squirrels only glide and cannot “take off” from ground level. As to why they’re called “flying” rather than “gliding” squirrels, I have no idea.
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@just nutha: You are correct, they glide. There is a “flying” frog in the Amazon who’s name I forget, that glides by spreading out it’s toes and stretching the membranes between them to catch the air. Evolution is amazing.
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@de stijl:
I think there is some sort of effect from gliding close to water. I’ve been trying to look up a Soviet era aircraft that flew only a few meters over water. It couldn’t climb higher than that, much like a hovercraft. I’ve found nothing.
As to gliding vs flying, I equate flight with lift. Gliders do produce lift, ergo they are flying (squirrels included).
Gliders don’t produce enough lift to stay up for long. See any airliner that loses all engines, like the Gimli Glider, or any design without active propulsion, like the space shuttle after reentry. They lose altitude steadily, but slowly. If they didn’t produce any lift, they’d plummet, as happens if a plane stalls.
