On: The age of electric flight is finally upon us

[gingabriska]

I wonder if it can be possible to tap into the human body's energy store and use that to make flights over short distance.

[nradov → gingabriska]

A few human powered aircraft have flown but it's just barely possible. Only the strongest athletes can produce enough power.

https://www.fai.org/news/thirty-years-longest-human-powered-...

[NeedMoreTea → gingabriska]

Average human at rest puts out about 100w of heat. That's probably not enough to keep the cabin warm let alone power the aircraft.

Burning human fat stores seems a mite dystopian. ;)

Edit: Human at rest. I imagine Ryanair might be keen on pedals for everyone, but I can't see that being popular with the holidaymakers.

[gameswithgo → NeedMoreTea]

A human can put out ~200W to the pedals (or 400 for an hour if you are among the best in the world). The amount of heat they put out when doing that is much more. The human body is about 30% efficient so if you are doing 200watts to the pedals you are putting out over 400w of heat. This can be a challenge for strong athletes on bike trainers in doors. you need a big fan, with somewhere for the air tog o.

[username444 → NeedMoreTea]

https://www.cascadebiketrainers.com/news/2015/09/01/calculat...

Seems a trained person can do 150-250w

[anticensor → username444]

We can extract 400 watts if we also suck power from the brains.