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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 0259.PDF
MARCH 14, 1914. LIGHT THE LONDON GULLS. FOR some time now the gulls have been very much in evidence by the bridge in St. James's Park and by the Em bankment between Westminster and Blackfriars bridges, and those interested in flying might do worse than spend an hour feeding them and watching their evolutions in the air. The trouble is they move so quickly, that it is very difficult to follow their evolutions with the eye. The pictures published in this number of FLIGHT will give some idea of the peculiar positions they sometimes get into, and also show the queer attitudes in which they blinker. It is perfectly certain also, although our photographer was not lucky enough to get a picture of it, that they can and do for a short period fly upside- down. If two gulls fly at a piece of food from opposite directions so that a head-on collision would appear to be unavoidable, and one gets the morsel just too quickly for the other, the second one, to avoid a collision, will suddenly turn upwards and over on its back, so reversing its line of flight, but almost instantly it comes over sideways by a kind of warping of the wings, very " Flight" Copyright. SOME MORE LONDON GULLS.—The gull gliding with outstretched wings is worthy of particular attention owing to the downturoed entering edge and the dihedral angle at the root of the wings, merging into a negative angle at the tips. This is described in full elsewhere. The two gulls in the top left-hand corner are in flapping flight. place their wings and body, in order to recover normal flight. One point that up to now has led to much dis cussion is proved by one of the pictures; that is as to whether they use their feet to help to balance them selves. It will be clearly seen that one gull is putting its feet well over on a bank, to shift the position of the centre of gravity. The strange part seems to be that, when on a steep bank, they do not apparently spread out the bottom wing in order to derive support, but more generally fold it down at the tip—just the reverse to what it might be thought would be best in an aeroplane— unless it is that they use the extreme tip as a curtain or ® ® The Slack Fund. THE following is a further list of subscriptions received to date in connection with the above fund :—G. Albert, £2 2s. ; W. Moorehouse, £1 is, ; J. Snail, IOX. 6d. ; R. S. Poultney, F. J. Hodyson, H. A. Seal, Frank Owen, S. Simms, J. H. Thompson, J. J. Johnson, F. H. Milns, R. E. Whitfield, L. Midwood, Chas. M. Dawson, F. Swalz, F. Gill, R. M. Alpini, B. Garter Read, much after the way Hamel does his turnover. One particularly interesting photograph is that of the gull in the smaller picture gliding with outstretched wings. We do not remember ever seeing a picture of a gliding gull with the wings quite outstretched before. It will be noticed that there is a distinct dihedral from the root to about one third the span of the wing, after which there is a negative dihedral to the tips; also the entering edge is turned down. This bird was coming along at a fairly slow speed, and was individually noted. It did not move its wings at all, but kept the same altitude for quite a considerable distance. The two gulls in the upper left corner picture were in flapping flight. ® ® 2s. 6d. each ; E. Corke, T. A. Bromley, Edgar Mennell, zs. each ; J. Whitfield, H. Dawson, H. Gledhill, G. Hydes, A. Althorp, B. P. Edwards, S. Radcliffe, F. Marshall, A. Huby, A. Benson, T. E. Kushaw, S. Savory, Gerald Simms, E. Payne, S. Dawson, EdVin C. Bolt, F. Townsend, H. J. Gaze, W. P. Bangs, W. H. Collins, F. H. Brough, Geo. Dixon, F. W. Butler, ix. each; W. H. Snow, A. Guckroyd, 6a?. each. 259
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