- Forget reindeer. If Father Christmas really wants to
get his sleigh airborne next week, scientists say he should call on the
services of a flying dinosaur.
-
- Paolo Viscardi, a flight physiologist at the University
of Leeds, has calculated that flying reindeer would need wings 10 metres
(33ft) long. That's three times the wingspan of the wandering albatross
and more impressive even than the bird with the largest known wingspan,
the extinct South American Argentavis magnificens.
-
- The calculations don't include the weight of the sleigh,
presents and the great man himself, though Mr Viscardi said that was not
a problem. "Most birds, especially the eagles that I've based these
calculations on, can lift a little bit more than their own weight. As long
as you have enough reindeer, you'd be fine."
-
- He worked out that Rudolph & Co would need a total
wing area of at least nine square metres. "They would look a bit odd."
-
- The only known creature with bigger wings was the dinosaur
Quetzalcoatlus - "dragon of the clouds" - with wings up to 15
metres wide. But it died out 65 million years ago.
-
- The other technical hitch is in the arrangement. Mr Viscardi
said the sleigh would have to be dangled beneath the reindeer, rather than
strung behind.
-
- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
-
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1108503,00.html
|
