[londons_explore]

> Early attempts at human flight approached it by strapping wings to people's arms and flapping: Do you think that would have eventually worked too, if only we had just given it a bit more time and faith?

Interestingly, we how have human powered aircraft... We have flown ~60km with human leg power alone. We've also got human powered ornithopters (flapping wing designs) which can fly but only for very short times before the pilot is exhausted.

I expect that another 100 years from now, both records will be exceeded, altough probably for scientific curiosity more than because human powered flight is actually useful.

[ben_w]

I knew about the legs (there was a model in the London Science Museum when I was a kid), but I didn't know about the ornithopter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTIAS_Snowbird

13 years ago! Wow, how did I miss that?