What... is the air speed of a laden swallow?

Our link today is to a wonderful piece of frippery by Jonathon Corum that answers the eternal questions posed by the Keeper of the Bridge in Monty Python and the Holy Grail on the airspeed of (South) African and European swallows, and has a nice link to another blog of his on a dimensionless number that describes the flight characteristics of winged organisms.

Incidentally, my personal copy of Cooper came today, so I may be able to do some more on him shortly. I know you are all waiting breathlessly. Breath people...