A pair of owls is helping German scientists figure out the secrets of bird flight. A camera system travels along with the two barn owls, Happy and Tesla, collecting data as the birds make short ...

The ability of birds to react to choppy gusts is leading aeronautical engineers to explore the concept of hinged wings on planes and drones. The responses to wind of a barn owl named Lily were studied ...

AMES, Iowa – Anupam Sharma pulled an accordion folder from the bookshelf above his Iowa State University desk. Inside was the carefully collected and preserved wing of a short-eared owl. Here, he said ...

The silent flight of owls could help suppress aircraft and turbine noise. A team from Chiba University in Japan has studied the unique features of owl wings that allow them to fly noiselessly. The ...

Wind turbines are great for clean energy but they aren't perfect. One issue is how loud they can be. To address this, designers are using owls as a model for making their turbines quieter. One company ...

Many species of owl are able to hunt in effective silence by suppressing their noise at sound frequencies above 1.6 kilohertz (kHz) - over the range that can be heard by humans. A team of researchers ...

Wind turbines, helicopters, and other devices that use rotors have a big noise problem, but the solution may come from a not-so little bird. Scientists from Chiba University in Japan and Shanghai Jiao ...

Many owl species have developed specialized plumage to effectively eliminate the aerodynamic noise from their wings -- allowing them to hunt and capture their prey in silence. A research group is ...