Introduction

	For me, it all started with a childhood fascination about flight in general and flapping wing flight in particular - how do the insects and birds do it? In evolutionary terms, how did it all begin? Clattering models powered by twisted rubber motors provided some insight, but I needed a more direct way of feeling the forces at work. Somehow, the time-honoured pastime of jumping off church towers with untried wings did not appeal, and I looked for other ways to understand flapping wings. Windsurfing came into my life unexpectedly in 1983. The experience was a revelation. The warm waters and reliable breezes of Port Moresby probably helped! At the interface between air and water, with the sail held aloft like a vertical wing, you have every opportunity to 'feel the forces'... and when you fall, you live to tell the tale. In recent years, I have felt a growing attraction to traditional windmills, firmly rooted on the spot with their arms feeling the breeze. There have to be some parallels here with the human lifecycle! At first sight very different, all of these air-borne or air-driven processes share features in common, and give rise to similar problems.

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour." (from Auguries of Innocence, William Blake, ca 1803)