Human Flight Never Happens

Point of Divergence ... During the course of history, one of mankind's dreams was to fly like the birds in the sky. From the ancient Greeks who had the myth of Icarus flying too close to the sun, the ancient Chinese who perfected the balloon and used man flying kites for military purposes and punishment, Leonardo Da Vinci who did many sketches of flying machines and studied the movements of the birds, and the Wright Brothers who took the first recorded flight, mankind has steadily been on the move to the point where now we can fly and travel anywhere we want in the world and into the heavens.

What if for whatever reason humankind decided not to be fascinated with flight? What if today we did not have the airplanes and rockets of the modern era but only ground and sea transport? How does this change the world today as we know it?
 
This would take a pre-1900 POD, and probably also one where the industrial revolution never happens. Actually, this belongs in pre-1900 entirely, given the rather widespread use of balloons (invented 18th century) and airships during the 19th century. This is probably entirely ASB, since curiousity is a natural trait of the human species and the idea of being able to fly through the air like birds is simply too great to resist. If you have a civilisation to begin with, you have a group of people who will be interested in flight and who will eventually create balloons.
 
This would take a pre-1900 POD, and probably also one where the industrial revolution never happens. Actually, this belongs in pre-1900 entirely, given the rather widespread use of balloons (invented 18th century) and airships during the 19th century. This is probably entirely ASB, since curiousity is a natural trait of the human species and the idea of being able to fly through the air like birds is simply too great to resist. If you have a civilisation to begin with, you have a group of people who will be interested in flight and who will eventually create balloons.
I wasn't quite sure where to place this, but this seemed the best place to put it, as I was referring mostly to the lack of planes and rockets in the modern era. Granted, it could fall under the pre 1900s thread, but I was thinking of more of the impact on the modern era rather than past years.
 
Rockets are another invention of the pre-1900 era ("and the rocket's red glare"), and with the advances in 19th century science, modern rocketry with ICBMs and spaceflight is only inevitable. And planes, well, even if the Wright Brothers die in a tragic accident in 1903, it isn't like the heavier-than-air flight will be delayed for long.
 
Good point about needing internal combustion engines for a light enough power-to-weight ratio.

The simplest way to delay human flight is sticking with ornithopters. Bird wing-flapping is ridiculously complex and modern scientists only started to understand all the different motions after high-speed cameras were invented.

It was not until circa 2,006 that a man-carrying ornithopter flew in Ontario. The University of Toronto project made short flights assisted by a Koenig engine.
In 2010, UTIAS flew the first man-powered ornithopter long enough to set an FAI record. Like all man-powered aircraft, it weighs less than its pilot and can only fly in calm air. During its record flight, it broke a drive shaft and was retired (to the museum in Rockcliffe) after its record flight. Scientists estimated that an extremely fit pilot could only flap 20 times before he was exhausted!

Another way to delay human flight is a church banning people from playing with kites or balloons. Something about arrogant humans trying to rise above their station in life by impersonating Angels. Blasphemy! Heresy!

IOTL Taliban banned kite flying when they gained control of Afghanistan. This was because Afghan boys like fighting kites. They glue broken glass to their kite strings and try to cut strings of other kites.
After the Taliban were deposed, kite flying was allowed again. One of the first casualties was a motorcyclist whose throat was slit by a kite string!
 
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