freepltier@aol.comdiedie (m.davis) wrote in message news:<20030118183629.20514.00000090@mb-fo.aol.com>...
> Bird bones are very strong and light. There are solutions to the engineering
> aspects. The real issue is financing the research needed to create the
> technologies that would allow the creation of such a thing.

Chances are we'd still need new materials to build an Eva; such
materials _are_ in the pipeline, but they're a fair way off. Another
major use that such materials would be put to would be the space
elevator - which would be perhaps the single most amazingly useful
structure ever built.

I was wondering about how far bone could be taken, too - I thought I
might have been too dismissive. You're right about bird bones being
lighter than mammal bones... but the largest land birds are not much
bigger than us, while the largest land mammals are elephants and
rhinos. Even so, take a look at an elephant's legs: they're
proportionally much thicker than ours.

Then again, though, birds today aren't that big - but they had some
pretty damn big ancestors. Maybe the best way to go about building an
Eva would be...

Step 1. Clone a T-Rex
Step 2. Armour plate it and hack into its brain
Step 3. Profit!