Originally Posted by
Prober
Have you ever plucked a chicken? If so, you will be aware of the strange lumps on the front (leading edge) of the wings. These are muscles and there is, somewhere, a marvellous film of pigeons landing and demonstrating that these muscles are, in fact, leading edge droop. The pigeons extend them a fraction of a second before landing, thus delaying the stall until required. It is absolutely fascinating and I have often wondered whether the designers of the system were aware that they were, in fact, copying something already designed by 'mother nature' long before man ever even dreamed of flying. I am sure that an inclusion of this fact would add an extra - and possibly unexpected - dimension to your thesis. Good luck.
Prober
I have on my desk the latest issue of Aeronautical Journal (November 2010), between pages 673-680 is a fascinating paper entitled "Mechanics and Aerodynamics of perching manoeuvres in a large bird of prey". The maths is rather beyond school level, but there are some fascinating pictures showing the shape of the wing and how it changes shape in flight and landing. You can buy copies of those papers for download
here, although I notice that the November issue isn't up yet.
G