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"I don't think it will work. I think that the human power to weight ratio is too small to move enough air at sea level to lift a body. Regardless of any magical gearing or lever action.."

Fixed wing human powered aircraft

have been flown successfully.
So, the power to weight ratio is there for fixed wing. The problem with the ornithopter is the huge amount of energy required to reach a speed where the wings are efficient enough for human power. This might be done with some sort of pre-takeoff storage, say with one of those ultra-highspeed flywheels in a vacuum that were in popular press as automobile energy storage units a few years back.

It flies like a bird, once it's flying. The operational geometry of the /. referenced ornithopters wing is NOT the same as a bird during initial acceleration

Here's a pretty good site with coordinate data. I used it for a Catia model once. If you want data on the performance of the airfoil as well, such as polar curves, here is another site. Anyways, one thing to take note of is that not all modern airplanes use modern airfoils. For example, the Gulfstream GIV uses a modified NACA airfoil.

• XFoil - XFOIL is an interactive program for the design and analysis of subsonic isolated airfoils. It consists of a collection of menu-driven routines which perform various useful functions
• NASG Airfoil Database - This database includes airfoil specification(contour,thickness ratio and etc.) and performance(lift,drag and moment) data widely.
• Aircraft Design Software Review - This page originated from a paper given at the ASEE Annual Conference, Sunday, June 25, 1995, Anaheim, CA (Gary Slater, session chairman: Software and Multimedia). It has been updated for design class use.
• CompuFoil - CompuFoil is the industry standard in airfoil modification and plotting software. Used by SIG, Estes Industries, Midwest Models, Hobbico, House of Balsa, HobbyHangar, Great Planes Models, R&R Products, CR Aircraft, DJAeroTech, The Electric Jet Factory, NASA, West Point, dozens of schools, colleges, universities and discriminating R/C modelers around the world. CompuFoil runs on Windows 95, 98, and ME. It will also run on WindowsXP/2000, and Macintosh computers (with a PC emulator), but these two require a custom setup program stub file..

There's a lot more, but this should give you an idea. Use google to find more (this may be a good place to start :-)

Aerodynamics is a huge field, and i doubt you'll ever get far enough to build your own plane, but if you're anything like me you'll have a lot of fun trying.

Good luck!

The restrictions in the rules and the general tone of the web site indicate this is just a promo event for wankers to get pissed and chuck themselves off a low platform.

REAL birdman competitions, on the other hand start with platforms a good 10 metres high and include some outstanding entrants in the human-powered division.

I used to watch the Toriningen competition that takes place on Biwa Lake in Japan. Every year the HPA division would see increasingly insane distances that would have easily won the Kramer prize if it had been a straight line. The contenstant would end up disappearing into the haze over the lake and they'd have to send a chopper to follow it as the rest of the competition went on.

Fantastic stuff.

There is no way in hell that anybody could anything significant with 40ft or less. I'm not a pilot or even terribly proficient with physics, but I don't imagine it would take much to demonstrate that the output necessary to provide enough airflow over 40ft of even the most promising surface to attain sufficient lift would be beyond human ability, even if three 80lb Armstrongs were behind the yoke. And I'm assuming this is a vertical limit as well as a horizontal one, so that rules out things like balloon assist.

Some examples of the state of HPV flight include:

Velair
Daedelus
Musculair
Light Eagle
Sakuzo

40ft. Give me a break. Literally.

There is no way in hell that anybody could anything significant with 40ft or less. I'm not a pilot or even terribly proficient with physics, but I don't imagine it would take much to demonstrate that the output necessary to provide enough airflow over 40ft of even the most promising surface to attain sufficient lift would be beyond human ability, even if three 80lb Armstrongs were behind the yoke. And I'm assuming this is a vertical limit as well as a horizontal one, so that rules out things like balloon assist.

Some examples of the state of HPV flight include:

Velair
Daedelus
Musculair
Light Eagle
Sakuzo

40ft. Give me a break. Literally.

There is no way in hell that anybody could anything significant with 40ft or less. I'm not a pilot or even terribly proficient with physics, but I don't imagine it would take much to demonstrate that the output necessary to provide enough airflow over 40ft of even the most promising surface to attain sufficient lift would be beyond human ability, even if three 80lb Armstrongs were behind the yoke. And I'm assuming this is a vertical limit as well as a horizontal one, so that rules out things like balloon assist.

Some examples of the state of HPV flight include:

Velair
Daedelus
Musculair
Light Eagle
Sakuzo

40ft. Give me a break. Literally.