Human-powered helicopter

[Karlos]

KennyR wrote:
If someone would actually have read up on the science, they could have saved their time and effort. The human body doesn't have the muscle or energy it needs to supply lift to its own weight. Our power to weight ratio is too feeble.

Power to weight isn't the issue here. Aeronautical engineering is. After all, whats the power to weight ratio of your average glider?

A human powered aircraft has already flown the channel, as blob points out...

[Karlos]

JaXanim wrote:

As has been said, no man has enough energy to generate a downthrust equal to the combined weight of the craft and himself

No, Kenny said that no human has the power to weight ratio to achieve powered flight, which is not true since it has been done. The method was unspecified. Although its fair to assume downthrust, given the thread title, I suppose :-)

No amount of gearing or body weight reduction will change that. Interesting thing is a bumble bee can do it with ease even though the principles of aerodynamics say it shouldn't.

Yeah, the humble bumble bee. Our A level maths/mechanics teacher (a former aeronautical engineer) used to bring that one up from time to time.

It basically demonstrates that there is more to aerodynamics than we fully appreciate (simply because we can't make the numbers fit), so perhaps there is hope for the helicopter yet...