“For the many wondrous things humans can do, we can’t fly on our own. But if we could, how big would our wings be?
Of course, the answer depends on the person’s size. But someone who’s about 155 pounds (70 kilograms) and at least 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall would have a wingspan of about 20 feet (6 m), said Ty Hedrick, a professor of biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “which I thought was surprisingly small.”
Hedrick arrived at this figure using an equation developed by Robert Nudds, a senior lecturer in biological sciences at the University of Manchester. Nudds described this equation in a 2007 paper published in the Journal of Avian Biology, in which he describes the scaling of bird wing parameters with respect to body mass.
But in this hypothetical scenario, we can’t simply slap on a pair of wings and call it a day. It requires a complete reimagining of our anatomy. If we want to fly, we need other features in addition to wings.
First, we must consider what kind of wings we’ll have. The classic angel look portrays a flying human with a huge pair of feathered wings protruding from the back. Anatomically, that would require a separate shoulder blade, Michael Habib, a research associate at the Dinosaur Institute at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, told Live Science. Those wings would also need flight muscles wrapping around from the chest to the back.
According to Habib, bat-like wings would make more sense on humans. In this setup, the entire arm and hand would stretch out, creating that 20-foot wingspan. A fleshy membrane wing would cover these limbs.”
If humans could fly, how big would our wings be?
https://www.livescience.com/health/if-humans-could-fly-how-big-would-our-wings-be