Human powered flight
by fulltimestudent 5 Replies latest social current
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Simon
That is awsome !
Personal helicopter transport is likelky a long way off though :(
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zeb
.......... ..to slip the surly bonds of earth
to dance the sky on silver wings
to fly the path to paradise
to do my god to do these things.
Reach out my hand across the void
where man does not disgrace
reach out my hand across the void and touch gods very face.
(from my memory so perhaps not accurate) written by a RAF Spitfire pilot later KIA.
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poppers
Zeb, that's one of my favorite poems. Here it is in its entirety.
High Flight by John Magee
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings.
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up, the long delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,
Where never lark or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
The author of this poem was actually an American who enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force before the United States entered the war. He died in a mid-air collision between his Spitfire and a "friendly" trainer aircraft. He was just 19.
When I was a kid growing up in the '60s I'd stay up late just to see this when the local TV station signed off. Eventually, I memorized it.
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glenster
Cool experiment if not practical.
The last dozen or so links at the bottom of the page at the next link feature
flight with wingsuits, only practical if you're near a cliff, flight that's
only practical if you have a jet pack, and Franz Reichelt, who wasn't practical.
http://glenster1.webs.com/experiments1.htm -
prologos
why sully the exilirating experience of levitation with the agony of aching muscles?
engineless planes have flown a thousand miles non stop,
outclimbed modern jetliners, and endurance records have been stopped in the fifties because the right wind over the right ridge blows for weeks, but humans can only stay awake for 3 days and preserve their sanity.
a solar plane just flew across america SF to NY.
people soar up from the cliff of La Jolla CA without even so much as a run.
the silent flight experience is the ultimate,
please leave the pedals out of it. use the energy that is already in the atmosphere, ready to be harvested.
a helicopter is the least likely candidate to give you a pleasant human powered flight experience, because:
why do helicopters fly?
they fly by repulsion'
they are so ugly,
the earth repells them.
enjoy you high.