How do gliders keep flying without an engine?
> return to questions Have you ever seen a flock of pelicans circling high in the sky or a seagull hovering motionless over a headland? The pelicans are flying in a column of rising air (a thermal) and the seagull is flying in the rising air deflected upwards by the cliff face (ridge lift). In both cases, the birds are in an air mass that is rising faster than they are descending through it. Gliders exploit the same natural phenomena.
