“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
It would apear, nothing! From a practical perspective, I see two main issues, and one side issue though:
1. Windspeed. Any wind against your direction or to the side of it is against you, as you’ll have to correct it with some kind of force. That force comes right out of your forward momentum budget, along with the cost in energy you’re paying for lift!
2. Coordination! Imagine trying to keep a city of these very well-winged machines moving around without high-altitutde collisions! Even low altitude collisions would be 10ft in freedom units, and that’s enough to maim or kill a person, even in safety gear.
3. Take-off and landing areas – It’s rather large, innit?
All of these can be accounted for, so some do exist, but they aren’t adoptable on a wide scale.
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