Mechanics of a falling cat

Question

It is a general statement that cats tend to fall on their feet. How far is this is a valid statement? If I were to drop a cat from 50 meters height, feet up(hypothetically), would it still land on its feet? But would that violate the angular momentum conservation (if initially the cat has zero spin when dropped) and the law of Inertia?

Answer 1

This has been well studied.

Cats use their tails to flip themselves around. Initially, the inertia of the tail matters. After a short time, the wind resistance of the tail becomes significant.

Put another way, cat's right themselves using angular momentum, then keep them selves that way using aerodynamics.