January 2016 – Leonardo Times

In the wake of World War II, Vietnam had become the next major battleground of the 20th century. It started with a battle for independence against the French, led by Ho Chi Minh and backed by the communist nations. Along with Laos and Cambodia, Vietnam finally became independent, but the country was split up in a communist northern and a democratic southern part. After attempts to reunite the country through elections failed, the southern part sunk deeper into political instability. Prime Minister Diem had failed to sustain peace and unity among its citizens, and as a consequence, the pro-communist National Liberation Front, better known as the Viet Cong, started guerrilla attacks from within South Vietnam. As the South Vietnamese army proved incapable of dealing with this disturbance, th...

A flock of birds flies in formation when travelling long distances, due to an energy saving advantage. Research on this phenomenon has been conducted throughout the beginning of the twentieth century, and it focused on how much can be gained using formation flight, where unfavorable effects have only been a topic of research for the last few decades. Background The phenomenon of birds in formation has been researched since 1914 by Wieselberger (Wieselberger, 1914), who initially identified a benefit. This benefit was defined in aerodynamic theory by Lissaman et al. in 1970 (Lissaman, 1970). Behind a finite lifting surface, a region of upwash and downwash is created. Both regions are separated by the tip vortex, present due to the finiteness of the lifting surface. A grap...

Month: January 2016

The Hidden Runway

Formation Flight: The effect of trimmed flight