MIT researchers from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have developed a control system that lets a foam glider land on a perch like a pet parakeet. Photo: Jason Dorfman/CSAIL

Everyone knows what it's like for an airplane to land: the slow maneuvering into an approach pattern, the long descent, and the brakes slamming on as soon as the plane touches down, which seems to just barely bring it to a rest a mile later. Birds, however, can switch from barreling forward at full speed to lightly touching down on a target as narrow as a telephone wire. Why can't an airplane be more like a bird?