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I seem to recall an article - or maybe a series of articles - published decades ago in "Sport Aviation" on a radically different wing design that claimed to allow bird-like landing profiles. I've recently been searching the web for information on this topic using keywords like "vortex lift" and "Prandtl wing" but without success. If anyone can get me pointed in the right direction I'd be most grateful.
Hugh
Look up the Witold Kasper article by Jack Cox in the archive for vortex lift.
There are a few 'reasonable' descriptions of vortex lift to be found on youtube.
As for the Prandtl wing, I found this youtube some time back;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr0I6wBFGpY
And while I don't profess to be an academically trained aerodynamicist, I had trouble believing their explanations as to what was going on in their theory.
You can probably find my thoughts to that effect, down through the comments.
Much as I like the idea of flying wings, one only has to look around us to see the reality of their effectiveness (or lack thereof).
The most popular form of flying wing would have to be the hang glider (which I flew for many years) but from the 'standard' accepted ideas of lift and stability, hang gliders tend to be a bit 'fringe theory' in the way they work.
I just want to see where this goes :)