Re: why has no one made wings for humans, with all of today's new plastics,

Mike,

One of the biggest issues with a personal flying device is the weight. While there are new materials that are extremely light and strong, the entire machine still has to lift itself plus the weight of a person. This is one of the main reasons that muscle powered flying vehicles will never be practical. An average person can only produce about 1/4 horsepower, and not for extended periods of time. The Gossamer Condor and Gossamer Albatross were two examples of human powered aircraft, but they had to be flown by athletes.

Flapping style wings (called an ornithopter) have never been successfully produced. A few toys have used flapping, but this motion on a machine big enough to lift a person would be very rough on the structure and lead to mechanical failure.

Another option is a hang glider. This is a cloth wing with metal supports that can carry a person and can fold up for portability. These are usually found flying near mountains or cliffs where the pilot can use "ridge lift" (wind blowing up one side of the mountain) to keep flying. A motor can be attached to these allow flights in flat terrain.

There are several other flying devices that are (almost) small enough to be portable. The smallest, and probably closest to what you're looking for, is a powered paraglider. It consists of an elliptical glider style parachute attached to a small engine and propeller which is worn like a backpack. The whole unit can fit in the trunk of a car (okay...maybe you'd need an SUV) and weighs between 50-100 lbs. These designs are very safe because if your engine quits, you're already wearing a parachute. This is probably the cheapest form of powered flight (you can occationally find used units for less than $2,000) Powered paraglider is just one of the sites on the internet that give information about this form of aviation (I'm planning to buy one of these myself in a year or so).

Another idea still in development is for a personal flying device that's like a personal helicopter that uses two small ducted fans for lift instead of a large rotor. You actually stand up while flying this. Solotrek is the company's site, but it'll be several years before this reaches the market, and the cost will be rather high.

An idea that got a lot of attention back in the late '70s and early '80s was for jetpacks. These were actually rockets worn like a backpack that produced lift through a pair of tubes on either side of the pilot. The big problem with these designs is that they could only carry a little over one minute worth of fuel. And if the engine quit, you'd fall from the sky. The Rocket Man is one of the few places you can still see one in flight.

Hope this helps,

Todd Engelman