Exploring Science: What Is Flight?

Discover the flight techniques of insects, birds and flying creatures, and human inventions from kites to airliners; step-by-step experiments help you understand how flight works.

This title comes with 18 easy-to-do experiments and 240 exciting pictures. You can uncover the flight techniques of insects, birds and other flying creatures. You can explore the science that humans have developed to enable them to fly. You can find out how a jumbo jet carrying 500 passengers can stay in the air, and how a hummingbird can hover over a flower with pinpoint precision. Exciting experiments and inside-view diagrams explain the mechanics of drag, lift and thrust. Dramatic photographs and expert text capture the power and mystery of flight. It is an ideal reference source, for use at home or at school. You can follow the history of flying, from the first (disastrous) human attempts to soar like birds, to the creation of a supersonic airliner that flies faster than a bullet. You can explore the techniques of nature's most skilled flyers - from the prehistoric pterosaur to the long-distance albatross. You can share the excitement of the first human flight by Orville and Wilbur Wright, and the challenge of flying a round-the-world hot-air balloon. Step-by-step experiments and projects - including making a balloon jet, a kite and a rocket - will help you to understand how flight works.