I often see seagulls fly directly into a fierce wind, sometimes hardly flapping their wings. How is that even possible?
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They are taking advantage of how stationary wing aerodynamics works. If air flows over a wing, it creates lift. This is exactly how a plane flies. If there is a strong enough headwind, a plane sitting stationary will be lifted off the ground.
If the seagull wants to move backwards, it can angle up, if it wants to move forward, it can angle down, if it wants to gain height, it can flap.
Imagine a seagull in still air gliding. If it is moving fast enough it can just glide and not have to flap. This is the same situation, but the air is moving instead of the seagull.
It way seem weird to us on the ground, but the seagull is flying relative to the air. If we were on the seagulls back and couldn’t see the ground, we wouldn’t be able to tell if the seagull was flying or the wind was blowing. If we were a dust particle in the air and couldn’t see the ground, we wouldn’t be able to tell if thr seagull was flying or if the wind was blowing.
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