Why is it so difficult for us to just replicate a bird instead of the kind of fixed wing aircraft we have?

Question

Why is it so difficult for us to just replicate a bird instead of the kind of fixed wing aircraft we have?

In: 164

Answer 1

It’s not hard…. At the size of a bird. Beyond that, things start to fall apart

Birds wings cannot carry much. There’s this fact of the universe called “the square cube law”. Tldr: if you make something bigger, it’s weight will increase faster than its size. This law is why there aren’t many elephant sized birds. If they got too big, their bones would be too heavy.

We can technically make bird-sized machines, but bird-like wings don’t really scale up well. They get too big, they just can’t support their own weight. In fact, it’s why there aren’t many elephant-sized animals. Most could not handle the weight of being that big

Tldr: Birds just aren’t the best at flying. That goes to aero engineers.