“Japanese Student Takes Flight of Fancy, Creates Flying Bicycle” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJrJE0r4NkU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJrJE0r4NkU)
*Edit: Far beyond regulations and air traffic control issues, only regarding to physics:*
I’ve just seen this video of a Japanese student that has achieved making a flight of about 200 or 300m with a mechanism that turns the pedalling we normally do in a bicycle to the turning of a propeller.
Now, if we as humans and a very great bike can reach 40-50 mph (and very light planes such as cessna can take of with only 60mph – not to mention Bush Planes – all of these weighting easely 4 to 5 times the weight of a person + an extra light airplane design, specifically created for that porpouse) – why does this seems too hard to achieve/sustain? I can only guess its a matter of efficiency (or the lack of it), but which one of them?
In: Physics
Human powered aircraft have been built and flown, with a number of flights over reasonable distances. The basic demands of flight, in terms of the relationship between lift and drag, put a minimum power requirement to lift a certain weight and keep it in the air. For a very light weight aircraft with a human occupant, that minimum power requirement is right at the limit of what a human body, if well trained athletically, can sustain. You would be looking at Tour de France level of cycling ability rather than I ride my bike to the shops level of cycling ability to be able to power such an aircraft. There are a few people who can achieve this, but there is little reason to actually do so other than for the achievement of having done it. It is certainly not a practical way of travelling.
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