Why can’t humans fly

Without a doubt, humans are the most advanced creatures of all. Our bodies are supremely complex and our brain’s vast consciousness just adds to it.

We can do things with our human body that are unimaginable to most other creatures on this planet.

Since the dawn of time, humans have been intrigued by the thrill of wind and flight.

We have created planes to make us reach places faster and parachutes to feel the thrill of flying for a short while. Yet we have not been able to do it ourselves.

Why can we not make wings and set flight like many of the other creatures on this planet?

Scientists have determined after careful research that it is mathematically impossible for human beings to fly as birds do. 

Body type

A lot of this comes from evolution and how the human body has been built. 

A bird can fly because its wingspan and wing muscle strength are in balance with its body size. These two things help the bird fly as the balance stops it from coming crashing down to Earth. 

Moreover, a bird has a lightweight skeleton with hollow bones. Due to this fact, the bones put a smaller load on their wings. 

These are not the only things that allow a bird to fly high.

Birds also have air sacs connected to their lungs.

These sacs make it even lighter and allow for easy passage of air through a bird's lungs during flight. 

Why humans cannot have wings

All living things, including vertebrates, have genes. 

Genes can be said to be like these little instruction manuals inside our bodies that determine how our bodies grow and what these bodies can do. 

We cannot change or alter what our genes do.

The best example of this would be our appearance.

If we are born with brown eyes we cannot change them, unless we wear contact lenses. 

Our genes predetermine many such things that we do not have any control over. This biological cell stops us from extending our wings and setting sail in the sky.

There are specific genes called "hox genes" that we have. These genes are unique as they make sure our bodies grow a certain way as we get older. 

One example of this could be that even though one might grow taller than their siblings, the hox genes ensure that we grow taller in our hands and legs.

We do not end up growing an extra pair of hands or legs just because we are growing more. 

In contrast to this, a spider’s hox genes are what give it eight legs. This is unique to a spider.
So one main reason humans can’t grow wings is that our genes only let us grow arms and legs.

What if humans could grow wings?

In this case, we would also need the right body size and metabolism.

Metabolism can be defined as our body’s ability to use fuel (such as from the food we eat) to make energy, which helps us move.

In contrast to us, birds have a much higher metabolism.

For example, a hummingbird’s heart can beat up to 1,200 times per minute, while a human athlete’s heart might only go as fast as 220 beats per minute.

This indicates that hummingbirds can burn energy better than humans.

Unless humans had all of this, we wouldn’t be able to fly even if we did have wings. Dinosaurs also only evolved to become birds by making their bodies much smaller and lighter over time.

Why can birds fly and we cannot?

Birds can do all this because they have the correct combination of all these characteristics. 

On the other hand, calculations of the ratio between human size and strength reveal that our species will never be able to take flight unaided. 

We have learned from research that as an organism grows, its weight grows at a more rapid pace than its strength does. 

Hence, an average adult male human would need a wingspan of at least 6.7 meters to fly.

This calculation does not even think or take into consideration that in function these wings themselves would be too heavy to ever help a person fly.

There is a reason that a 6-year-old girl can do more pull-ups than her 40-year-old father — she may be weaker, but her strength-to-size ratio is still greater than her father’s ratio. In simpler terms, it is impossible for humans to fly because their strength simply cannot support our weight in flight.