Why do we need an airplane to fly? Why can’t we fly ourselves?
We have developed Airplanes by studying the flight of birds, based on Bernoulli’s principle of streamlined flow but why we can’t we fly ourselves?
I know this is a very strange question and each one of you believe (truly know that it is impossible and feel i am a stupid person) that we can’t fly. Yes, you are right we can’t fly but something about this statement doesn’t feel right.
The fact that Science and Technology has advanced so much, we should have found out some way that could enable human beings like you and me to fly in the air like birds (i wonder whether the art of flying could make me reach my tuition classes on time).
I was curious so i searched several articles from Physics and Biology and came to this conclusion that we can fly, only in our dreams and visions.
The analogy behind flying (with respect to birds)
The biggest advantage that birds have over us is that they have wings, wings give them the thrust to overcome the force of gravitation which in turn lifts them off the ground, but that’s not all. Even if we manage to get artificial wings, we won’t be able to balance the flight, which birds manage to do effortlessly because of light frame, light bones and a bounty of air sacs present within their bodies.
We can use airfoils to increase the lift and that might result overcoming the gravitational pull, but that sort of stuff would last for fraction of a second and thus we would fall almost instantly.
Another reason that supports birds in flying is strong pectoral muscles relative to other muscles in the body. Even if we had wings, our pectoral muscles would have to be just 100+ times stronger than what it is now (that’s not much, right?) in order to support such a heavy body. By heavy body, i mean that of a normal men, obese people can postpone the thought of flying for about a lifetime.
Let’s assume that everything happened fine and we were able to fly but in order to overcome gravitational at each instance of time, we would need to flap the airfoils at a very large speeds, just try to fly like a bird for about 10s, and then imagine the same stuff with a huge airfoil, you get what i am saying right?
It is beyond human potential to even move their wings (hands) like the birds do.
These facts that deny the power of flight from us won’t break my hope. Some day in the future, when you and i won’t be alive anymore, there would a girl/guy who would fly high, in his dreams, if not in reality, but seriously, i think human beings would be able to fly if they get to a planet that has a lower gravitational pull than earth, we can jump to heights on moon, flying maybe possible at some extra-terrestrial body as well.
Thanks for reading this article, i hope you liked it, i was just walking on my terrace today when i got this idea, i am disheartened too that i won’t be able to fly like birds in this lifetime, what do you think about this article and please subscribe to my blog for more articles on science, technology and gadgets.
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This does seem like a strange question, but it’s strange questions that lead to brilliance. I can appreciate that.
I think our best bet for personal flying right now is jet packs, and I don’t think those will be hitting stores any time soon. I did see recently that a flying car with airplane-like wings was invented. I guess that’s a start.