This wing bone structure is in the shape of a cornucopia and is bouncey -- allows for energy storage. Another smaller version of the wing bone should be added and a wing material stretched inbetween, and the flyer would wear one on each arm, as well as one attached to both legs, to allow human powered flapping flight. Picture attached.-- JesusHChrist, Jan 22 2014 Wing Spring Bone Model http://netfreedombl...s-of-wing-bone.html [JesusHChrist, Jan 22 2014] [+] though mostly I can imagine the charley-horse in the back. Is (say) double the power going to be enough to enable powered flight ?-- FlyingToaster, Jan 22 2014 Human powered flight is possible. Not easy, but possible.
Human powered flapping wing flight is not if the wings are arm based. It might be possible if the wings were somehow leg based, but I wouldn't bet on success with that approach.-- MechE, Jan 22 2014 <<humans are BMI challenged>>
But we have technologies like leverage and energy storage on our side. All I am saying is that these don't have to come in the form of gears, pulleys, chemical interactions etc. There has got to be a minimal way of doing it.-- JesusHChrist, Jan 22 2014 [JHC], we've been through this before--in fact, we've been through it in the last few weeks: human-powered flapping flight is not physically possible. Birds are lightweight creatures with bodies evolved specifically to acheive dynamic flight. They are clumsy as hell and vulnerable on the ground, which is why their primary mode of defense is to fly away from a threat. Humans, on the other hand, are heavy-boned and densely muscled creatures with bodies evolved specifically to run down and inflict savage violence upon anything we think might be good to eat, which is why our primary mode of defense is not to take flight but instead run like hell along the ground (or to turn around and beat eight shades of shit out of anything foolish enough to attack an apex predator).
So, one more time, even if you could stack enough muscle on the human body to overcome its own heavy build, which you can't, and even if you could make human skeleton strong enough to withstand the force exerted by all of those bulging muscle, which you can't, and even if you could make the human breastbone the right shape to anchor effective flight muscles, which it isn't, even then you will not be able to build a human capable of sustained bird-like flight, and this is why:
HUMANS AREN'T BIRDS. Buy a plane ticket.-- Alterother, Jan 22 2014 I think human powered flight is possible givin windy enough conditions. It won't be human evolution that allows flapping flight, but extreme weather brought by global climate crisis that ultimately will allow near naked humans to take to the skies. Battling high speed gusts of wind won't be easy but with wingspring bones, enough carbs and a lot of luck humans can fly with the birds.-- rcarty, Jan 22 2014 // I think human powered flight is possible givin windy enough conditions. //
If there's enough wind to lift a human off the ground then it's not human-powered flight, it's wind-powered flight.-- Alterother, Jan 23 2014 Well how much of birds' flight is wind powered compared to bird powered. I'd say all of bird flight is bird powered simultaneous with wind power. At all times human powered flight will be human powered, but also simultaneously wind powered. Because human fliers will ultimately be using the power of the wind to fly, human powered flight will require substantial wind power to lift heavier forms with lightweight aerodynamic appendages, and kite like ccostumes. That a bird requires less wind power than a human, and a bird can generate that lesser amount, but a human can't produce that greater amount shouldn't mean flight that is wind powered isn't also human powered.-- rcarty, Jan 23 2014 // I'd say all of bird flight is bird powered simultaneous with wind power. //
So you're saying that birds can't fly unless the wind is blowing?-- Alterother, Jan 23 2014 No, but wind is an essential element that they produce, but that they produce wind does not mean they are not wind powered. They rely on wind, but humans cannot produce enough wind power to lift themselves aas birdds do. It's something like a tautology to say wind powered flight.
Ultimately all flight is wind powered, but in the case of using nonpowered tools like wing spring bones, if I understand the idea correctly, is to acieve solely human powered flight in conjunction with flight's inseparable friend wind, and it's power.
Recently a large light four bladed bicycle powered helicopter achieved record setteing sustained flight. It was a human powered vehicle in a "windless" environment. But the craft had to pproduce enough wind to power its flight. Therefore the human powered flight is also a windpowered flight. And therfore to say wind powered flight is a tautology.
Even a kite is a human powered flight example because some human power is required to keep the line taut, although nothing is flying except the kite, although it is a memorable sensation to jump and be pulled by a kite, sustaining a human powered flight.
So in conclusion you have erred significantly as there is no windless flight, other than descending in a gliding manner. I'd further argue that falling is not flight, and that only wind powered ascending or horizontal motion is flying. Although that would be wrong and I'd lose some ground.-- rcarty, Jan 23 2014 //Even a kite is a human powered flight example because some human power is required to keep the line taut//
No, work done = force * distance, taut line, no distance, no work done. You could replace the human with a sand bag.-- bs0u0155, Jan 23 2014 I'm sorry but even the deft reactions of a sandbag could not replace a human in this instance.-- rcarty, Jan 23 2014 Certainly not in _your_ instance.-- Alterother, Jan 23 2014 [rcarty] "Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale." (Wikipedia).
I think it is useful to maintain the distinction between air flow generated by a bird's flapping and other motion (not wind), and wind.
Thus, while all flying birds derive lift from the movement of air relative to the bird, some (e.g. albatross) are largely wind-powered, while others (e.g. hummingbirds) are essentially not wind powered, and others again (e.g. gulls) are in between. Wind is a thing. Air movement is a thing. They aren't the same thing.
The sandbag-kite thing is a false dichotomy. A good kite in a steady wind can often fly with the string anchored to a fixed point, but there are a range of conditions in which the operator, by manipulating the string, allows a kite to fly that would not fly if anchored. So, kites are mostly wind powered, but human power is sometimes involved too.-- spidermother, Jan 24 2014 //Although that would be wrong and I'd lose some ground.//
I'd think you'd gain some, probably lodged in between your teeth as you hit it.-- RayfordSteele, Jan 24 2014 Anyway I had fun making the argument. There is a fine line between wind power and air movement that is fun to dance around. In the end the argument that wind powered flight is a tautology fails, but only by that fine thread that shows that there is a nonwind air movement that lofts some birds.-- rcarty, Jan 24 2014 //technologies like leverage//
Well there's the answer. Give me a long enough lever and I can lift myself.-- RayfordSteele, Jan 24 2014 random, halfbakery