eli5: Why is it not possible to build bird-like attachable wings that account for body proportions to allow humans to fly or glide around?
In: 2102
Because of the Square Cube law.
Basically, the way bird wings generate lift is a function of it’s surface area.
However, bird wings aren’t weightless, so the wings need to generate enough lift to lift themselves and the rest of the body up.
As the body gets heavier, the wings need to get correspondingly bigger, and bigger wings mean heavier wings.
That eventually results in getting something so heavy that you effectively can’t scale that design up enough to continue working.
If you try and fix it by using lighter materials then they tend to not be strong enough to stand up to the stresses of using them.
Also, giving people man power capable personal flight would be such a fucking legislative nightmare of liabilities
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