Machineless Flight

I just finished watching How to Train Your Dragon. I can’t believe I didn’t see it in theatres. It was able to impress on me something I haven’t felt in a long time while watching an animated film - absolute breathtaking joy at the miracle of flight. The last time must have been in Aladdin with the magic carpet; How to Train Your Dragon was like if they gave carpet cute anime eyes and the ability to shoot laser beams out of its mouth.

Anyways, back to miracle of flight. It’s been a long standing hope of mine that we will one day be able to achieve “machine-less flight” that is, flight where we don’t have to rely on the power of machines to get us off the ground or keep us in the air. As of right now the only thing I can think of that comes close is the hang glider, but that is really just, as Buzz Lightyear would say, “falling with style.”

After one of the glorious dragon flight scenes in HTTYD, I paused the movie and did a google search and was surprised to see that “machineless flight” had only 6 results. Is there something else that it might be called? As I currently don’t have a hang glider, or a wing suit, or really the balls to use either, I’ll have to stick with just biking really fast and letting the wind blow through my hair. My imagination can take care of the rest.