An eagle soaring may look majestic but in technical terms, there is some impressive physics happening “under the hood” when they do. Specifically, eagles and other soaring birds take advantage of the ...

Remote-control gliders are a familiar sight over Aliso Creek Valley, soaring silently as they float and dip on thermal currents along a 300-foot slope. But much like golf balls and baseballs, the ...

Although zero-emission air travel may sound like a thing of the future, gliders have a long history, which can be traced back to the birth of aeronautics. Before the Wright brothers famously outfitted ...

High in the sky, Ron Tabery circles like a buzzard with a 92-foot wingspan. On a good day, he can soar in his gleaming white glider for six hours or more, riding thermals like elevators and traveling ...

With the graceful flight of hawks and eagles in mind, NASA aerospace engineer Michael Allen recently hand-launched a 15-pound motorized model sailplane over the Southern California desert. He was ...

He’s Steve Leonard, a sailplane pilot. He’s been there and back again. Sailplanes look like airplanes. They don’t have engines. A tow plane pulls sailplanes into the air with a cable. A gifted pilot ...

A system to detect thermals and enable an unmanned glider to fly within them could be developed after flight trials in 2006. The thermal flight system will form part of a 91kg (200lb) glider with a 12 ...

“It’s an addicting sport,” Ian Cummings, president of the Torrey Pines Gulls, said of the remote-controlled flying that lures enthusiasts like himself to La Jolla’s Torrey Pines Gliderport. “Everybody ...

Glancing skyward above Lagoon Valley, you might see a variety of birds soaring among the air currents. Soaring right alongside the turkey vultures or hawks Wednesday were sleek model airplanes gliding ...

Sign up for our LI Press email newsletter to get news, updates, and local insights delivered straight to your inbox! The Long Island Silent Flyers have been flying ...

Migratory birds often use warm, rising atmospheric currents to gain height with little energy expenditure when flying over long distances. It's a behavior known as thermal soaring that requires ...