** Tomorrow ** TITLE: Sailor of the Southern Skies
SPEAKER: Peter Lissaman TIME: Tuesday, March 25 12:30p LOCATION: 624 Agua Fria Conference Room Lunch will be available for $5 ABSTRACT This is a theoretical scientific seminar of the methods by which the southern albatross (Diomedea Exulans) extracts energy from the oceanic boundary layer, as first noted by Lord Rayleigh and, poetically, by Coleridge in "The Ancient Mariner". This great bird flies many thousands of kilometers on stationary, silent wings. The primeval flight energy extraction procedure makes its existence possible. The analysis involves optimization of nonlinear, extreme angle flight mechanics in a spatially varying wind field, and some simple variational techniques. The results are supported by a short VCR clip, showing the process. Many of the discussions of this topic on the web, and in ornithological literature, including a recent authoritative volume by Oxford Univ. Press, are incorrect. The lecture has been presented at American Instit. of Aero- and Astronautics, NASA, Caltech, Stanford, USC, UNM and other places. The Presenter Peter Lissaman has a Ph.D. in aeronautics from Caltech, and advanced degrees in Math from Cambridge Univ., in ME from Natal University and an Honorary Ph.D. in engineering design from Natal University. He was awarded the Longstreth Gold Medal by the US Franklin Society (previous recipients were Orville Wright and Thomas Edison) and the Kremer medal from the Royal Aeronautical Society. He has taught many students, from Navy test pilots to Grad students at Caltech, USC, and Stanford. Some of his students went far - two to the moon! He is a designer of operating aircraft, sailboats, wind turbines and automobiles, and has published more than 160 papers on subjects ranging from wing theory and bird flight to turbulence. ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
