What is the closest science has come to flying?

Question

What is the closest project that scienctists have done that allows for human flight. Like Iron Man. I want to know who is trying to make a personal flight machine, how close they have come and all the good details. Links and all.

Answer 1

This is an incredibly inefficient idea, however...

Moeller International was trying to make a flying "car."  But it's so absurd, the thermo-dynamics of it mean you're going to burn 1000x as much fuel to travel one mile down the road, ten feet off the ground, as you would by simply driving your SUV on the road.  

I'm sure the same waste of enegry burned vs. energy used applies to this proposed idea.  I doubt your mainstream scientists and inventors are interested in pursuing such a device, do to the fact that no customer would be able to use it more than a couple of times before they ran out of fuel money...  Still, they'd look a lot cooler than that guy on the Segway, right?

Answer 2

Williams X-Jet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_X-...  here is a YouTube video of it flying http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJARrc40i... here is another X-Jet video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isQkyfCLX... here is something a bit different http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LkmiXP79...

Answer 3

Like Iron Man?  The US air force built jet packs back in the 60's I believe it was.

Utterly impractical, but they did lift the guys off the ground.

Answer 4

You could ask Richard Pearse, Glen Curtiss or Orville and Wilbur Wright but they are all dead.  Old age, mostly.  

Answer 5

a flying car

Answer 6

actually jet packs are pretty close but there is one more

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/108/31034...

http://timescorrespondents.typepad.com/c...

Answer 7

Some years ago somebody managed to build an aircraft which managed to get off the ground using nothing but peddle power. It didn't fly very far or high, needless to say. We will never be able to fly by strapping wings to ourselves and flapping them, because, relative to body weight, our arm muscles aren't powerful enough.

Answer 8

We will never fly like birds, we're just not built that way.

Other than that, start with hot air balloons and the Wright brothers, and you're on the right track.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_hi...

If you mean specifically like Iron Man, a jet pack is the closest to that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_pack

But for the closest experience of actually flying, I'd suggest a wingsuit!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingsuit

Answer 9

Consider the Gossamer-Albatross man-powered flying machine.

Answer 10

em... the word 'airplane' springs to mind....