Usain Bolt's lightning speed could help him fly

We all know Usain Bolt is one of the fastest people on Earth.

Now, students have shown his superhuman speeds would actually allow him to fly like a bird on one of Saturn’s moons while wearing a wingsuit.

The world-record holding sprinter has reached top speeds of 12.27 metres per second, which would be fast enough for him to take off on the planet's biggest moon Titan while wearing a regular wingsuit.

Not many people in the world can run at this speed - but the fastest sprinters have been shown to reach top speeds above 11 metres per second. Bolt would be expected to take off as he got to the finish line of a 100-metre race.

Theoretically, the Olympic athlete would then be able to soar above the planet – without any need for propulsion.

Physics students at the University of Leicester made the calculations in their final year paper for the Journal of Physics Special Topics, a peer-reviewed student journal run by the University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. Student Hannah Mills said:

It has long been predicted that humans would be able to lift off into the moon’s atmosphere if they were wearing wing-type devices on their arms.

The students also found it might even be possible for those of us who can’t reach Bolt-like velocities to spread our arms and fly – but it would be a lot less comfortable, and we would look a lot sillier.

To calculate the speed needed, the group factored in: the density of air at the surface of Titan; the acceleration due to gravity; an average wingsuit wing area (approximately 1.4 metres squared); and the ratio of the streamline path of the air above the aerofoil to that below the aerofoil.