{"id":1526,"date":"2023-09-04T09:32:53","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T07:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/?p=1526"},"modified":"2023-09-04T09:32:53","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T07:32:53","slug":"that-was-the-summer-that-was-july-august-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/?p=1526","title":{"rendered":"That Was The Summer That Was July-August 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>As Kingfishers Catch Fire<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For those of you in the northern hemisphere, I hope that you have had a relaxing and enjoyable summer break.&nbsp; I spent mine by a river at an old water mill, in rural France.&nbsp; I spent much of my day watching the birds and thinking about aviation \u2013 to each his own, I guess.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Airbus and Boeing have talked about <a href=\"https:\/\/simpleflying.com\/airbus-bird-of-prey-concept\/\">copying the birds<\/a> in the design of new aircraft.&nbsp; They are interested in the bone structure of birds, light, but strong, distributed in ways we do not currently do for aircraft, and capable of amazing flight.&nbsp; The airframers are also looking at more flexible wings and differently shaped wingboxes.&nbsp; They are studying how to mimic the birds\u2019 climb profiles.&nbsp; This goes nowhere near far enough!&nbsp; Indeed, frankly, it misses the point.&nbsp; The truth is closer than you think.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The birds along the river I was overlooking already represent the aviation industry.&nbsp; The busy sparrows, slightly round of body and low-slung are obviously the B737s of the river.&nbsp; The swallows, more elegant in body shape, doing touch and goes as they refuel, are the A320 family.&nbsp; Both sets of birds never stop during the day, flying a network that is hard to understand unless you are inside the planning process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Magpies and blackbirds are the next size up, the B787 and the A350.&nbsp; Longer haul, more selective about the branches (or airports) they land at.&nbsp; They sit on the trees, waiting for the right moment to beat the curfew somewhere else and make their move.&nbsp; At night, the bats and owls are the freight operators, moving almost without sound, but ferrying goods back and forth.&nbsp; Busy, whilst we sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It should also be noted that the birds self-separate.&nbsp; No cumbersome air traffic control procedures for them.&nbsp; It should also be noted that as they self-separate, they never collide.&nbsp; Why can\u2019t we copy that part right now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore, for the dedicated plane-spotter, there are any number of other types to note.&nbsp; The tiny tree-climber, a very rare bird, somewhat like an ultra-light, and about as endangered.&nbsp; The finches, the nightingale and the robins.&nbsp; Always great to spot.&nbsp; The hawks, such as the kestrels, are the military aircraft.&nbsp; Down at the very low-level airspace, dragonflies are the drones of this piece of airspace.&nbsp; Herons are helicopters.&nbsp; Almost perfect vertical take-off and landing, whilst somehow looking pre-historic.&nbsp; It is just about possible to allocate roles to all of the birds.&nbsp; I confess, however, that the woodpecker defeats me.&nbsp; Not sure we want an aircraft that has as its feature the desire to bash into trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That leaves two sorts of birds, the pigeons (and doves) and the kingfishers.&nbsp; The pigeons are the biplane of the airspace.&nbsp; They are so cumbersome, so badly designed that often their wings slap together at the top of the arc as they flap hard trying to take off.&nbsp; They also make a very stupid noise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kingfishers, on the other hand, are beyond our understanding.&nbsp; They fly as if they have jets attached to their wings, which seem not to move at all.&nbsp; They fly low over the water, incredibly quickly.&nbsp; If one comes past, it is as if a gas torch has been lit in front of you, a blur of orange and blue.&nbsp; They move at that amazing pace, then will do a 45-degree turn, fly at full speed to the water, do the entire diffraction thing, stop, stop dead, catch a fish, do a 90-degree turn out of the water and get back to top speed instantly, with a load.&nbsp; We are about a million years from designing technology that can match that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Inspirational.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Kingfishers Catch Fire For those of you in the northern hemisphere, I hope that you have had a relaxing and enjoyable summer break.&nbsp; I spent mine by a river at an old water mill, in rural France.&nbsp; I spent much of my day watching the birds and thinking about aviation \u2013 to each his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1527,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526\/revisions\/1527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}