Flight trajectory of badminton shuttlecocks

The aerodynamic behavior of badminton shuttlecocks differs considerable from other ball, racket or projectile sports. Being a bluff body, the shuttlecock generates high aerodynamic drag and steep flight trajectory. Despite the popularity of the badminton game, scant information is available in the public domain about shuttlecock aerodynamics and its flight trajectory. The primary object of this work was to construct the flight trajectory of a synthetic and feather shuttlecock for a range of wind speeds under non-spinning condition based on aerodynamic data obtained experimentally.