Flying Machines, Amazing at Any Angle – The Montana Flight Laboratory

The flying abilities of even the most prosaic bird put airplane maneuvers to shame, and experts here at the University of Montana Flight Laboratory are cognizant of that every day.

"Birds can do some pretty spectacular things," said Kenneth P. Dial http://dbs.umt.edu/flightlab/dialcv.htm , a biologist who, in 1988, founded the lab at a field station near the University of Montana http://www.umt.edu . "They can go from 40 miles an hour to zero and land on a branch that’s moving, all in a couple of seconds. It’s inspiring."

Jim Robbins

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/science/04birds.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&ref=science