Originally Posted By: Evo

What Is the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow?

only someone with quick wit, and experience will know or even attempt to answer that question....


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 or African Swallow is roughly 11 meters per second, or 24 miles an hour.
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T.K. Paker