physically, what is stoping humans from having “flying bicycles”?

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“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

34 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

You can reach relatively high speeds on a bike, but you couldn’t get to the same speed if you added the drag associated with cessna sized wings (assuming we’re talking about a flat surface).

On top of that, wheels are really good at transmitting energy to the ground. The moment you take off, you would lose efficiency (maybe someone can confirm how efficient propellers are).

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