Why cannot a man fly using artifical flapping wings, whereas birds and bees can?

Answer 1

The features available in birds, but not in man, which makes them fly are:
1. Streamlined body
2. Feathers
3. Hollow bones as opposed to the solid bones in man. The hollow bones are filled with air, which makes their body light.
4. Powerful pectoral muscles.
5. Last but not the least..... Wings
In the case of insects, they lack a proper, organised skeletal system which is the reason for their light weight, and also the presence of wings enable them to fly.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Leonardo and many others have noticed that birds, bees and other creatures DO NOT fly by FLAPPING their wings.

Bees, butterflies and most other insects use a twisting figure-of-eight motion, like flag-waving. This could be incorporated into a device, and would work for lifting a human or a much larger weight.

Birds, some moths, and many other insects have a multi-component wing ('feathery'). These animals fly by GLIDING on the formed wing surface, and can reform the wing in a different place at will, in order to change the pattern of their glide.

Birds reform their wing partly by folding it, and partly by separating the feathers. That's why computer-generated birds often look so weird - they fly with an upstroke and a downstroke, while real birds fly only on a downstroke.

The other part of birdflight that seems like 'flapping' is the 'hedral' shift. During the downstroke, a bird moves its weight from below the 'V' of the wings (dihedral) to above (anhedral). This movement is like a skater changing edges; it directs momentum for the next thrust.

All of these actions could be imitated by a contraption, which would then 'fly like a bird', whether powered by a machine or a human. In practice, it's SIMPLER to use circular motion, such as a propellor, and relatively constant 'pitch' (even a helicopter wouldn't normally use a figure-of-eight action), so that's what we have developed.

(The existence of genuinely flapping models that can fly, does not mean that this is how birds do it. After all, many models fly using a propellor...)

The propellor-driven 'Gossamer Condor' demonstrated that humans do have enough power-to-weight for flight. We can perform the 'flared' landings (using a hang-glider) that we see pigeons and crows making very casually, but because of our anatomical limitations, we'd never be able to do this from the same kinds of speed, or in the savage crosswinds & turbulence that these birds take for granted.

It isn't our weight or lack of power that prevents us from carrying out the spectacular aerobatics that most birds can perform with ease; jet aircraft with huge power-to-weight ratios can't match them either.

Hollow bones, huge pectoral muscles and the like, aren't 'secret weapons' that allow birds to fly. These features explain why the flying ability of the humblest bird is astonishingly superb. To survive predators, competitors and adverse weather, any bird needs not just to fly, but to fly exceedingly well.

Answer 4

The human bone structure is to heavy and completely not aerodynamic.

If you mean hook something up to your arms and flap them, then your arms would have to be inhumanly strong to get enough air moving beneath the wings.


Birds that weigh close nothing have to flap 20-30 beats per minuet. Insects are more like 40 per second. It's best left to the machines. The closed you are going to get is hand gliding and maintain your altitude by finding the updrafts.

Answer 5

The main reason is that area is proportional to the square of the "size" and volume (therefore mass if the density is constant) is proportional to the cube of the "size". For example, look at a falcon, a pretty good flier, if it somehow became 10 times as big, its wings would have 100 times the area, and the cross section of the muscles and bones (therefore the force that they can apply) would be 100 times as much, but the mass (weight, when you consider gravity) would be 1000 times as much. It would be lucky if it could even walk. This is why you don't have to worry about giant ants stepping on your house.

Answer 6

it is because if you had the mussel structure to create the lift needed to fly your arms would either be as thick around as 55 gallon oil drums or longer than your body is tall (each!!) this is why birds wings fold up around there bodies, and a 100 pound bird will have a wing span of 8 or 9 feet

Answer 7

its because man just don't have the power to flap the wings as fast as it can... birds and bees are light and they have small wings making it easy for them to flap it.

and besides, man wasn't made to fly^^ leave the flying to the birds... but if you really want to fly.. take the plane^^

Answer 8

Because he can't move his wings fast enough to produce enough down thrust to over come gravity and lift his weight off the ground. Man probably could if were in an environment with less gravity. Most men have enough trouble overcoming getting out of bed in the morning plus, of course, we DON'T HAVE TO fly.

Answer 9

because the birds bodies are very light unlike human, the birds bodies are much lighter than their wings, human needs a HUGE wings to fly!

Answer 10

Because birds and bees dont have artifical wings idiot