What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
What do you mean? An African or a European swallow? According to www.style.org/unladenswallow (check it out, they do all the math!), it really is “a simple question of weight ratios.” The answer the website gives for the European swallow: 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 Swallow is roughly 11 meters per second, or 24 miles an hour. Sources: Monty Python, www.style.
