Picture the symbol of our great country, the magnificent bald eagle, soaring high over the land.

If either its left or the right wing was rendered inoperable, would that awe inspiring raptor not plummet in a dizzying spiral to its destruction?

Whoa....dude....you just blew my mind, man.

Where's that video of the F-15 that struck a MIG, sheared off a wing, and still made it home safely?

Depends on where the bird was hit in the wing. I had that happen with my R/C glider - the guy decided to shorten one wing by 2'. I was lucky to get the glider back on the ground.

:cool:

On a more sober note...you could ask a duck hunter...

if it was the left wing, it would give up and want someone else to take care of them, with the right wing, he would fight and not go down.

IIRC, it was just outboard of the engine. As in, there wasn't much "wing" left at all.

"But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle." - Thomas Jefferson,

From his first inaugural speech, given March 4, 1801 after a bitterly contested presidential election. More people, especially political partisans should read and ponder it.

http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres16.html


When life is at risk a new perspective is often gained; treasure it. Good luck for the future.

question taken literally: birds can fly fairly well with a damaged wing - they are much more complicated flight "machines" than any aircraft.

In my opinion, the bird would spin in.

It is common among bird breeders to clip the wing of birds. They clip the wing about 2/3 of the way out. They only cut the feathers....but the bird instantly knows that they have a slightly shorter wing...and they don't fly any more.

N

We are in a spiral, any suggestions?:D

Great thread, great point? Liberalism wipes out another mind.

:DNow that's funny.

Total loss of a wing would probably cause the bird to roll in the direction of the lost wing. The full wing would still be creating lift, while the lost one would not, therefore it would roll that direction. Because the full wing would still be creating some drag, it would also tend to yaw in the direction of the full wing. So it would yaw opposite the direction of roll, basically tumbling to the ground. Then you would go to jail for a long time for shooting said bald eagle.:p

Banal, totally predictable, unimaginative response (and the above also), yes.
Funny?
Yawwwwwn.........

It does, however, point out the disdain some have for thoughtful analysis and productive discussion, prefering instead to attempt to close-mindedly boil all isues down to black and white.

Apparently it also illustrates the inability of some to take a joke.

Is this a good time to bring back that post about the birds and the bird seed and about how once you start with the handouts you can never stop?

I'd have probably laughed if the joke wasn't, uhh.....banal, totally predictable and unimaginative.

I find that extremely hard to believe. If he were spouting from the left side of the fence, rather than the right, you would be congratulating him on how insightful and clever he is, seen it a million times.

Byron actually got it exactly backwards, if we are talking about what I think we are talking about. If you lose the R wing, you spin left etc, etc, lose L wing, you spin R.

For example, here in California, our bird has an atrophied R wing, leading the bird to spend money it does not have, chase business to Texas and Arizona and run up a 20 billion dollar debt.

Perhaps we are talking about avian flight characteristics, in which case this thread is a bit banal

Well, you start with this metaphor, you gonna get sarcasm. I was thinking along the same lines, but I'm not as much of a hard liner as BVD and others.

Right wing, left wing..... red, blue, what if the tail feathers are rendered inoperable?? Doesn't that plug into the metaphor? :D

Tobra, good thought. I failed to see that.