Re: 7.1Hz, how the heck did Tesla succeed?

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Ed Phillips <evp@xxxxxxxxxxx>

">DaVinci was a genius, but his muscle-powered flying machines couldn't
fly.

Yes, DaVinci was a genius.  Human powered flying machines rely only
on human muscle power.  The Gossamer Albatross was a human-powered
aircraft built by Dr Paul B. MacCready. On June 12, 1979 it completed
a successful crossing of the English Channel to win the second Kremer
prize."

	I think the current thinking about daVinci is that a lot of his
sketches weren't meant to be taken literally and that he was just
fascinated in the details of living things and like to sketch out
mechanical analogs.  He was too good an engineer to have expected the
ornithopter to fly on hum power.  As for MacCready's machines, they
worked on totally different principles and got by with exceedingly light
wing loadings plus highly, highly trained pilots.  He went into the
Kremer prize project because he wanted the money and had hoped one of
his sons could do the flying, but it was physically more than they felt
like handling.

Ed