Props (aknowledgements, not propellors) to Man powered flapping flight and Undulating Wright Glider.

Most human-powered aircraft (propellor and undulatory) have been large, spindly, rigid-framed affairs having substantial mass. By comparison, ram-air wings such as paragliders achieve large wingspans and areas with low mass and robust construction, by means of an inflatable, non-rigid wing, and suspension of the pilot centered below the wing.

Conventional paragliders are not human powered. This idea is for an adaption of para wing to include human power input via the lines that connect the wing and pilot.

The modes of human-powered propulsion could be several. At launch, the pilot would pull-up the wing as normal paragliding practice. Further running, also per normal. A mechanism adapted to the motion of running would be attached to the pilot's legs by lines (thin rope), and would have a clutch between it and the final drive. So the pilot would engage the clutch and keep 'running' aloft. The mechanism you ask? half-baked of course.

An alternative incarnation would involve pedals and at least one wheel.
-- afinehowdoyoudo, Oct 11 2011

Paraglider launching http://www.paraglid...torpedo-launch.html
[afinehowdoyoudo, Oct 12 2011]

What would the //final drive// ... drive?
-- pertinax, Oct 11 2011


It would look like a giant, flying skate. [+]
-- mouseposture, Oct 11 2011


So the lines could be belts driven by pedals, operating a propeller?
-- normzone, Oct 11 2011


I envisioned the final drive to be the lines that attach to the canopy (the inflated wing). Except instead of being static, or having only a little action for control, they would have lots of motion, synchronized to create an undulatory motion. I think the flapping action has the potential to be more efficient than a propellor.
-- afinehowdoyoudo, Oct 11 2011



random, halfbakery