flying fish Any of about 40 species of oceanic fishes (family Exoco- etidae). They are found worldwide in warm waters and are noted for their ability to “fly.” All species are less than 18 in. (45 cm) long and have winglike, rigid fins and an unevenly forked tail. Two-winged species have only the pectoral fins enlarged; four-winged species have both the pec¬ toral and the pelvic fins enlarged. Rather than flying, they actually glide after jumping from the water. They can make several consecutive glides; the strongest fliers can travel as much as 600 ft (180 m) in a single glide, and compound glides may cover 1,300 ft (400 m). The behaviour is pri¬ marily a means of escaping predators.
Flying Fortress See B-17
flying shuttle Machine that represented an important step toward auto¬ matic weaving. It was invented by John Kay in 1733. In previous looms, the shuttle was thrown, or passed, through the threads by hand, and wide fabrics required two weavers seated side by side passing the shuttle between them. Kay mounted his shuttle on wheels in a track and used paddles to shoot the shuttle from side to side when the weaver jerked a cord. Using the flying shuttle, one weaver could weave fabrics of any width more quickly than two could before.
flying squirrel Any member of two distinct groups of rodents that are able to make gliding leaps by means of parachute-like membranes con¬ necting their forelegs and hind legs on each side. North American and Eurasian flying squirrels, in the squirrel family (Sciuridae), are slender, long-limbed forest dwellers with soft fur and large eyes. They are 3-24 in. (8-60 cm) long, excluding the often-flattened tail, and feed on nuts, fruit, other plant material, and insects. They seldom descend to the ground. They can glide 200 ft (about 60 m) or more from one tree to another. The scaly-tailed flying squirrels of Africa (family Anomaluridae) have rows of scales on the underside of their tufted tail that help them climb and cling to trees. They are similar in appearance and feeding preferences to the sciurids and are about 4-16 in. (10—40 cm) long without the tail.
Flying Tigers or American Volunteer Group Group of U.S. civilian volunteer pilots recruited by Col. Claire Chennault to fight the Japanese in Burma (Myanmar) and China in 1941-42. Surprise, mobil¬ ity, precision flying, and unorthodox tactics enabled the Tigers to outwit the Japanese and inflict considerable damage on their air and ground forces.
Flynn, Errol (Leslie Thomson) (b. June 20, 1909, Hobart, Tas., Austl.—d. Oct. 14, 1959, Vancouver, B.C., Can.) Australian-U.S. film actor. He sought adventure in New Guinea before turning to acting in Australia and England. In 1935 Warner Brothers brought him to Holly¬ wood, and he became an instant success as the swashbuckling hero of Captain Blood. He continued to play dashing heroes through the 1940s in films such as The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), The Sea Hawk (1940), They Died with Their Boots On (1941), and Gentleman Jim (1942). After a period marred by scandal and bad roles, he returned to critical and popular praise in The Sun Also Rises (1957).
flysch Vflish\ Sequence of shales interbedded with thin, hard, graywacke- like sandstones. Such sequences are usually thousands of yards thick, but the individual beds are only a few inches to a few yards thick. The occa¬ sional presence of fossils indicates marine deposition. The term originally was applied to a formation of the Tertiary Period in the northern Alpine region, but it now denotes similar deposits of other ages and places.
flytrap See Venus's-flytrap
flywheel Heavy wheel attached to a rotating shaft to smooth out deliv¬ ery of power from a motor to a machine. The inertia of the flywheel opposes and moderates fluctuations in the speed of the engine and stores the excess energy for intermittent use. In automobile engines, the flywheel smooths out the pulses of energy provided by the combustion in the cyl¬ inders and provides energy for the compression stroke of the pistons. In power presses the actual punching, shearing, and forming are done in only a fraction of the operating cycle. During the longer, nonactive period, the speed of the flywheel is built up slowly by a comparatively low-powered motor. When the press is operating, most of the required energy is pro¬ vided by the flywheel.
FM in full frequency modulation Variation of the frequency of a carrier wave (commonly a radio wave) in accordance with variations in the audio signal being sent. Developed by American electrical engineer Edwin H. Armstrong in the early 1930s, FM is less susceptible to outside interference and noise (e.g., thunderstorms, nearby machinery) than is AM. Such noise generally affects the amplitude of a radio wave but not its frequency, so an FM signal remains virtually unchanged. FM is also better able to transmit sounds in stereo than AM. Commercial FM broad¬ casting stations transmit their signals in the frequency range of 88 mega¬ hertz (MHz) to 108 MHz.
Fo, Dario (b. March 24, 1926, Leggiuno-Sangiano, Italy) Italian play¬ wright. He and his wife, Franca Rame, founded a theatre company that developed a leftist theatre of politics and later established an acting troupe with funding from the Italian Communist Party. In 1970 they set up a touring collective to perform in factories and other public sites. Fo’s popular one-man show Mistero Buffo (1973) was censured by the Vatican. He wrote more than 70 plays, including the satire Accidental Death of an Anarchist (1974) and The Pope and the Witch (1989). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1997.
Foch Vfosh,\ English VfashV Ferdinand (b. Oct. 2, 1851, Tarbes, France—d. March 20, 1929, Paris) French commander of Allied forces in World War I. He entered the artillery corps in 1873 and from 1885 periodically taught military strategy at the war college, becoming its com¬ mandant in 1908. After World War I broke out, he commanded an army detachment and planned the strategy that enabled Joseph-Jacques-Cesaire Joffre to win the First Battle of the Marne. After commanding at the Battles of Ypres and the Somme, Foch was appointed chief of the general staff (1917), adviser to the Allied armies, and then commander in chief of all Allied armies (May 1918), in which capacity he prevailed on the battlefield against Erich Ludendorff. When Germany was forced to ask for an armistice, the conditions were dictated by the recently promoted Mar¬ shal Foch. Considered the leader most responsible for the Allied victory, he was showered with honours after the war and was buried near Napo¬ leon in the Invalides.
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Focke-Wulf 190 ► folk music I 687
Focke-Wulf 190 (Fw 190) Vfo-ko-'vulfX Fighter aircraf of Nazi Ger¬ many, second in importance only to the Messerschmitt 109 in the German air force in World War II. It began service in 1941, was superior to all its opponents until 1942—43, and remained a successful fighter and fighter- bomber until the war ended. A single-seater, it was armed with four 7.9-mm machine guns; later versions also carried cannons. The model produced near the end of the war had a top speed of about 430 mph (690 kph).
fog Cloud of small water droplets near ground level that is dense enough to reduce horizontal visibility to less than about 3,000 ft (1,000 m). Fog may also refer to clouds of smoke particles (smog), ice particles, or mix¬ tures of these components. When visibility is more than 3,000 ft, the phe¬ nomenon is termed mist or haze, depending on whether it is caused by water drops or by solid particles. Fog is formed by the condensation of water vapour on condensation nuclei that are always present in natural air. The most stable fogs occur when the surface is colder than the air above. Fogs can also occur when cold air moves over a warm, wet sur¬ face and becomes saturated by the evaporation of moisture from the sur¬ face. Convection currents carry the fog upward as it forms, and it appears to rise as steam or smoke from the wet surface.