What is the airspeed velocity of an Unladen Swallow?
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M$2 Answers
Monty Python's Holy Grail
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Averaging the above numbers and plugging them in to the Strouhal equation for cruising flight (fA/U = 7 beats per second * 0.18 meters per beat / 9.5 meters per second) yields a Strouhal number of roughly 0.13:
... indicating a surprisingly efficient flight pattern falling well below the expected range of 0.2–0.4.
Although a definitive answer would of course require further
measurements, published species-wide averages of wing length and body
mass, initial Strouhal estimates based on those averages and
cross-species comparisons, the Lund wind tunnel study of birds flying
at a range of speeds, and revised Strouhal numbers based on that study
all lead me to estimate that the average cruising airspeed velocity of
an unladen European Swallow is roughly 11 meters per second, or 24 miles an hour.
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