The pterodactyl, flying dinosaur
I saw a documentary in an IMAX theatre about an ambitious project that the Smithsonian Institute once undertook. They wanted to create a life-sized flying dinosaur, a replica of the famous pterodactyl. The hardest part for them was to figure out how this ancient bird was able to change direction in flight. They toyed with the idea of using the bird’s tail as a rudder. They also tried lowering the bird’s shoulder and rolling the wings to the right or left but nothing they tried ever worked. Finally, they...
