All of the designs glided successfully.
You can make your own design for a pterosaur glider. This is the plan for the first glider that we designed in July 1976.
Testing Gliders
| In 1976, the Warsop and District
Geological Group tested some pterosaur gliders. They were made
out of balsa wood and based on skeleton drawings taken from specimens in the
Natural History Museum, London. The idea was to see if the pterosaurs
could glide All of the designs glided successfully. You can make your own design for a pterosaur glider. This is the plan for the first glider that we designed in July 1976. |
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| Between July 1976 and
September 1977 we designed 15 pterosaur gliders. All of them were
based on museum specimen drawings and the wing shapes were designed
according to aerodynamic principles. Of five different small pterosaur species with different wing positions, all gliders flew within the expected flight patterns. Pterosaurs must have been very good at gliding. This type of study cannot test flapping flight. |
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