Flight has always been an intriguing prospect for humans. Stories are full of people who have captured the wind and ride the currents. Probably the most recognizable ancient story that involves wings and flight is the story of Daedalus and Icarus. Mary Poppins could fly with the aid of her umbrella. And children everywhere have often looked at birds and thought, “Why can’t I do that?” Sure, the airplane has enabled humans to take the skies in great number, but it isn’t the same, is it? Flying in an airplane is just like driving in a bus, so humans have come up with several ways of adding that feel. Hang-gliding is probably the closest you can get to feeling the sensation of flying like the birds, but it is technically not flight (it is gliding) which brings us to the question: what is flight? The OED refers to flight as, “The action or manner of flying or moving through the air with or as with wings: to fly.” This definition serves as an incredibly broad definition for flight. I think adding the stipulation that to be truly flight (like the birds) then one must have some form to propel themselves and control their movement through the atmosphere. It turns out that there are some pretty cool inventions out there that get closer to giving the average human the ability to fly around, but before we get ahead of ourselves, lets look at some of the biggest fliers in nature.

Birds have always intrigued people, and I have stood mystified looking at an eagle in a zoo for minutes just admiring the powerful wings that it would occasionally stretch. Today, the winner for the largest flying bird comes from the Andes mountains between Argentina and Chile in the form of the Andean condor. Here is a site that has more information on this and other birds. This massive beast can achieve up to an eleven foot wingspan and can weigh close to fifty pounds. The massive weight and wings consume a lot of caloric energy, so the animal has adapted to soar for incredible durations in its long quest for food. And though this condor is certainly a massive animal, prehistory has given us fossils of animals that harnessed flight that dwarf the Andean condor. The Pterosaur had a frighteningly huge wingspan of eighteen meters. That’s right eighteen METERS! That’s 58.5 feet! That’s probably the size of your house! There are fighter planes out there that don’t have that wingspan. Size doesn’t really seem to be a factor in the manipulation of air currents for flight; the trick seems to be how well can you capture the air and control it.

So what machines have humans come up with that allow us to experience the same locomotion as the avian creatures? A whole slew of things actually. The airplane is probably the leading vehicle for traveling in the sky followed closely by the helicopter. Both of these are worthy of comparison and contemplation, but the focus of this post is to look at the innovations that are being developed for personal flight. So, the first vehicle that has been under development for over a decade is Moller’s flying car. And though this is still kind of like an airplane, the car is able to go up to an altitude of thirty thousand feet and cruise at a speed of three hundred miles an hour. Not too bad. The problem (and it is quite a large problem) is the regulation of sky-ways and licensing that would be required to set up a workable network. Not to mention the insane amount of collateral damage that would occur if they were to fall out of the sky. But you can check out the specs and the site here.

And for fun, here’s a video of the skycar taking off:

Another method of flying that seemed ridiculous a decade or two ago but may be quite practical, is the jet-pack.

Anyone who has seen the Rocketeer has probably envisioned flying around on a jet-pack at some point in their lives. There are a few people that are developing cheap and practical jet-packs that could be the wave of the future. Here is a video that shows the machine in action.

So, will the future hold autonomous individual flying machines? I’m guessing yes. It really is the easiest way to get around and it has the potential to be far greener as well. Imagine how much concrete we could save by switching to these kinds of machines. The infrastructure of how we mobilize ourselves would change entirely. Next week, I’ll look at how homes will look and operate in the future.