Craft+Design

 Flight is much more than feathers and wings. Everything about a bird is made perfectly for flight. Their entire body inside and out has been designed for flight. Every part must give maximum power with a minimum of weight. There is a weight limit for a flapping bird. The heavier the animal, the bigger its wings need to be. The bigger the wings, the more muscle is needed to move them. The biggest flying bird today is called the Great Bustard. They weigh as much as 32 pounds and are 4 feet long. The best way to fly is to be light. So most birds are small. Birds have feathers that are very light weight. The bones that birds have are also made for lightness. Birds have less bones than most animals. The bones they have are hard but thin. The biggest bones in flying birds are the breast bone and the shoulder bones. Some birds have bones weighing less than their feathers. The powerful flying birds have medium weight skeletons. Birds that don't fly have the heaviest skeleton. In birds many bones are fused together. In this way not as many muscles are needed. The biggest muscles a bird has are its flight muscles. These are very strong because they have to raise the entire body into the air.
 * Internal Structures of a Bird - well why not learn something from the experts :)! **

http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/10-best-solar-airplane-concepts/ http://www.cranfieldaerospace.com/index.php?mod=uav_systems
 * __Useful websites for design of plane:__**

http://eprints.utm.my/2686/1/71921.pdf http://www.compositesblog.com/2009/08/uavs-and-composite-materials.html
 * __Using composite material for fabrication of UAV wing__**

__http://www.idexmedical.com/images/downloads/Parmax.pdf__
 * __Read somewhere that this is preferred material for UAVs__

**__Airframe construction for small, expendable UAVs__ http://www.dtic.mil/dticasd/sbir/sbir012/sba278.html

__**Inflatable wing design**__ http://www.ilcdover.com/products/aerospace_defense/uavwings.htm

http://www2.polito.it/ricerca/grupporomeo/UAVDesign.pdf
 * __Long powerpoint going through design from 1990s.... scroll down a good bit for interesting ones__**

http://pep.metapress.com/content/f1mm510737788006/
 * __Utilising the concept of flapping wings to aid the ability to hover in the sky over an object__**