Undergrad Would Icarus' wings fly in Earth's atmosphere and moon gravity?

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The discussion centers on the feasibility of Icarus' wings generating enough lift in Earth's atmosphere and lunar gravity. Participants question the specific weight ratio of 1/11th a human's weight, noting that lunar gravity is actually 1/6th. The conversation highlights the challenges of determining lift without a defined wing design and references the melting point of materials used in the myth. Comparisons are made to real birds, like the wandering albatross, to assess potential wing dimensions. Ultimately, the thread suggests a shift towards exploring optimized human-powered flight rather than focusing solely on the mythological aspect.
dedocta
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Could they generate enough lift for 1/11th the weight of a human? Was picturing a giant warehouse and curious if it would work!
 
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dedocta said:
Could they generate enough lift for 1/11th the weight of a human? Was picturing a giant warehouse and curious if it would work!
:oldconfused: Why 1/11th? Lunar gravity is 1/6.

Practically, there's no way to really know. How do you decide how much lift a human could produce without first choosing or designing the wings?
 
We have the legend of Icarus flying in the atmosphere.
The problem then was the melting point of the bee's wax used to attach the feathers.
 
Oh my goodness - 1/6th thanks Dave! Bit of a spaceshot here haha. Thats a good point.
 
A wandering albatross weighs around 25 lbs and has a 10 ft wingspan so the dimensions would not be unreasonable.
 
dedocta said:
Could they generate enough lift for 1/116th the weight of a human? Was picturing a giant warehouse and curious if it would work!
Since this thread start is in the technical Physics forms and not SciFi, shouldn't you be asking about how much farther optimized human powered flight could fly?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_human-powered_aircraft
 

Thread 'Reference frames, center of rotation, etc'

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