Aerodynamic enginners, your input, please

[Zkribbler]

Does anyone know anything about the aerodynamics of gliders?

I'm musing on the idea if "body gliding" is possible. That is, could someone with a pair of wings strapped to his back, say, jump out of a plane and then ride the thermal updrafts the way a glider does?

[Cort Haus]

They'd need to be very big wings attached to a very strong pair of arms, I'd say, Icarus.

I'm no Aerodynamic engineer, though.

[Zkribbler]

Not flapping! That doesn't work. The musculature of the human chest would have to extend about a meter for humans to be able to fly. I'm talking about just glding....essentially doing away with the glider fusaluge and just keeping the wings.

BTW: I'm not stupid enough to try this but I'll bet there are plenty of Darwin-award-type people who would.

[DaShi]

Why not just use a hang glider?

[Cort Haus]

Go on, try it!

[Zkribbler]

Good lord, I've re-invented the obvious.


Although my method would be more aerodynamic (laying horizontal rather than sitting upright) and would use wing movement rather than body shifting to turn.

On the other hand, I now know it's possible.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Yeah. I've seen them, although I don't remember what they're called. There are these suits that make you look like a flying squirrel. Looked fun.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Here ya go. http://media.putfile.com/flying_parachute

[KrazyHorse]

That guy isn't riding thermals. With such a high wing loading ratio there's no way he can do anything better than a controlled descent. His angle of travel was greater than 30 degrees below horizontal. To be able to maintain altitude for an extended period of time you need wing area measured in meters squared, as on a hang-glider.

[Tuberski]

Gliding shouldn't require a parachute to land either.

ACK!

[KrazyHorse]

Real hang-gliders have wing-loading ratios of about 5-6 kg/m^2...

[Frozzy]