http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=motorized%%20hang%%20gliding
A boy yearns to fly in Robert Altman's whimsical youthquake parable.
With the aid of seraphic Louise (Sally Kellerman), owlish Brewster
(Bud Cort) constructs a pair of human-size wings in his Houston
Astrodome nest to realize his dream.
http://www.videodetective.com/titledetails.aspx?publishedid=2859
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/7070/Brewster-McCloud/overview
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=trailer+Brewster+McCloud
Humans could evolve flight abilities easily given some 100s of
thousands of years and great pressure to do so creating a selective
playoff.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YV1Bkj_xm4o
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_squirrel
A number of animals have evolved aerial locomotion, either by powered
flight or by gliding. Flying and gliding animals have evolved
separately many times, without any single ancestor. Flight has evolved
at least four times, in the insects, pterosaurs, birds, and bats.
Gliding has evolved on many more occasions. Usually the development is
to aid canopy animals in getting from tree to tree, although there are
other possibilities. Gliding, in particular, has evolved among
rainforest animals, especially in the rainforests of Asia (most
especially Borneo) where the trees are tall and quite widely spaced.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_and_gliding_animals
In evolutionary biology, convergent evolution is the process whereby
organisms not monophyletic (not closely related), independently evolve
similar traits as a result of having to adapt to ecological niches or
similar environments.[1] The opposite of convergent evolution is
divergent evolution, whereby related species evolve different traits.
On a molecular level, this can happen due to random mutation unrelated
to adaptive changes; see long branch attraction.
In cultural evolution, convergent evolution is the development of
similar cultural adaptations to similar environmental conditions by
different peoples with different ancestral cultures.
An example of convergent evolution is the similar nature of the flight/
wings of insects, birds, pterosaurs, and bats. All four serve the same
function and are similar in structure, but each evolved independently.
Some aspects of the lens of eyes also evolved independently in various
animals. The striking similarities between hummingbird moths and
hummingbirds is another example of convergent evolution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_evolution
