Avian flight continues to inspire aircraft designers. Reducing the scale of autonomous aircraft to that of birds and large insects has resulted in new control challenges when attempting to hold steady flight in turbulent atmospheric wind. Some birds, however, are capable of remarkably stable hovering flight in the same conditions. This work describes the development of a wind tunnel configuration that facilitates the study of flapless windhovering (hanging) and soaring bird flight in wind conditions replicating those in nature. Updrafts were generated by flow over replica “hills” and turbulence was introduced through upstream grids, which had already been developed to replicate atmospheric turbulence in prior studies. Successful flight tests with windhovering nankeen kestrels (Falco cenchroides) were conducted, verifying that the facility can support soaring and wind hovering bird flight. The wind tunnel allows the flow characteristics to be carefully controlled and measured, providing great advantages over outdoor flight tests. Also, existing wind tunnels may be readily configured using this method, providing a simpler alternative to the development of dedicated bird flight wind tunnels such as tilting wind tunnels, and the large test section allows for the replication of orographic soaring. This methodology holds promise for future testing investigating the flight behaviour and control responses employed by soaring and windhovering birds.

Small fixed wing uncrewed air vehicles (UAVs) are often required to fly at low speeds and high angles of attack, particularly when operating in urban environments. This study focuses on the potential of combining two bio-inspired flight technologies to improve maneuverability under these conditions. The outstanding flight agility of birds is believed to be enabled by the capability to sense the airflow over their wings and morph their wing surfaces accordingly. To test the benefits of combining these abilities a wind tunnel model able to perform an avian-inspired wing sweep motion incorporating two arrays of pressure sensors was developed. Aerodynamic load results highlight strong changes to the pitching moment produced by the change in wing sweep angle. This suggests that wing sweep can be an alternative or complementary mechanism for pitch attitude control, improving control authority at high angles of attack. On the other hand, pressure sensing data shows the ability of these sensors to detect the fine details of the onset of aerodynamic stall. The combination of these two novel technologies is suggested as a potential method to improve UAV pitch control when flying at low speeds, when the aircraft is most susceptible to environmental disturbances.