Models
of airplanes thousands of years old… vast works of art that can only be seen
from the air… ancient texts that describe aerial battles. Are they proof that
ancient civilizations mastered powered flight?
Flight has
been the dream of humankind since they watched in awe as birds soared
effortlessly through the sky. But, according to accepted history, it wasn’t
until the 1780s that two Frenchmen achieved lighter-than-air flight when they
were lifted into the air in a hot air balloon near Paris. Then powered,
heavier-than-air flight became the goal. And although it was theorized that
heavier-than-air flight was possible as early as the 13th century, and in the
16th century Leonardo da Vinci designed winged aircraft and a crude kind of
helicopter, it wasn’t until the Wright brothers made their first successful
flights at Kitty Hawk in 1903 that powered flight became a reality.
That’s
the widely accepted history. Some researchers and a few rogue scientists
believe there’s evidence to suggest that humans achieved flight earlier in
history – much earlier… so early, they say, that the knowledge of this
technology has been lost and ancient stories that recount adventures of human
flight have been relegated only to myth.
Is
it possible that humans developed the technology to fly in early civilizations
– or in civilizations that are now lost to history? Let’s take a look at what
some call the evidence – intriguing artifacts, carvings, inscriptions and
legends – that they say point to the true record human of flight.
The
Egyptian Airplane
In
1898, a peculiar six-inch wooden object was found in a tomb at Saqquara, Egypt
that dated back to about 200 BCE. The object had a body or fuselage, seven-inch
wings that curved downward slightly, a fixed rudder and a tail. It looked very
much like a modern airplane or glider. But since airplanes had not yet been
invented in 1898 (never mind ancient Egypt), it was labeled as a model of bird
and stored away in the basement of the Cairo museum.
The
object was rediscovered many years later by Dr. Khalil Messiha, an authority on
ancient models. According to Messiha and others who have studied the object, it
has characteristics of very advanced aerodynamics, much like modern pusher-gliders
that require very little power to stay aloft. The curved wings are today known
as reversedihedral wings, which can attain great amounts of lift. A similar
design is employed on the supersonic Concorde aircraft.
Was
this just a child’s toy? Or was it a scale model of an aircraft the Egyptians
planned to build… or did build. If they did build a full-scale version of the
aircraft, no evidence exists for it. No full-size airplanes have been found in
any pharaoh’s tomb to fly him to the land of the dead.
The
Carvings at Abydos
.JPG)
Although
no airplanes or airplane parts have ever been found from the ruins of ancient
Egypt, is there corroborating evidence that they constructed aircraft?
Even
more controversial than the model airplane are the enigmatic carvings found in
the temple of Abydos,
Egypt by Dr. Ruth Hover. Hover photographed a wall panel which had been
revealed when a newer overlaying panel crumbled and fell off. The older panel
beneath contained embossed images that resemble modern aircraft as seen in
profile.
One
bears a striking resemblance to a modern helicopter, while others could be
interpreted as aircraft, hovercraft or even flying saucers. When the photos of these carvings first surfaced, it was assumed that they had been digitally
altered to create a sensational hoax. And indeed some of them had been
retouched to more clearly show aircraft-like features. But even unaltered
photos seemed to show the very modern-looking figures.
Perhaps
looks are deceiving, however. The official take from archaeologists is that the
strange carvings are palimpsests – the result of two or more overlapping
carvings that combine to look like something else. The “aircraft,” they say,
are merely combinations of overlapping hieroglyphics.
Central
and South American Shuttle
.JPG)
Egypt’s
isn’t the only ancient civilization that has produced puzzling artifacts. A
remarkable gold trinket estimated to be at least 1,000 years old – dating
perhaps to between 500 and 800 AD – was found in Central America and along
coastal areas of South America. If you weren’t aware of its age, you might
guess that it was a child’s model of the Space Shuttle or a delta wing fighter
aircraft.
When
the artifact was discovered, archaeologists called it a zoomorph, or
animal-shaped object. It resembles no known flying animal, however. It looks
distinctly mechanical with its delta-shaped wings, stabilizer fins and rudder.
It even has what looks like a pilot’s seat in the right place. Experts in
aerodynamics, however, contend that the wings are too far back for the object’s
center of gravity, and that the nose is not aerodynamically sound.
Whatever
this object is supposed to be or represent, its remarkable resemblance to a
modern aircraft or spacecraft is uncanny.
Nazca
– A Reason to Fly?
.JPG)
Spread
over a 37 by 15 mile plateau near Nazca, Peru are huge works of art “drawn” on
the ground by people of the Paracas and Nasca cultures. The figures,
called geoglyphs, are stylized portraits of a 18 different kinds of birds, a
curly-tailed monkey as big as a football field, a killer whale, a 150-foot
spider, a lizard, human forms and other strange objects.
Although
the civilizations that created the figures flourished between 200 BC and 600
AD, no one knows for certain when the geoglyphs were made… or why. But since
they were discovered, archaeologists have wondered by these people would create
such monumental works of art that could not be appreciated from the ground. The
figures can only be distinguished when viewed from a great height. In fact,
they were discovered in recent times only when an explorer noticed them when
flying over them in an airplane. Since there are no nearby mountains or other
elevated areas nearby from which to look down on the Nazca lines, how were they
ever seen?
Because
of Nazca’s large grids of crisscrossing paths, that seem to go nowhere (some
extending as long as six miles), authors such as Erich Von Daniken have
suggested (with only this as “evidence”) that Nazca is a ancient spaceport. The
paths, he contends, are runways for aircraft, and that their pilots and
passengers were those privileged to view the large-scale figures.
Less
sensationalistic is the suggestion that this ancient civilization constructed
hot-air balloons in which to take passengers aloft to view the symbols. In
1974, Julian Nott and Jim Woodman tested this theory by building
a balloon made of materials available to the Nazca natives. They constructed a
gondola of totora reeds and stitched-together sheets of cotton cloth that they
filled with the hot air from wood smoke. Their balloon, dubbed Condor I,
quickly rose to over 300 feet, proving that it was at least possible for the
South American natives of this region to have achieved lighter-than-air flight
long before Europeans did.
The
Vaimanika-sastra
Although
the Chinese are credited with inventing rocketry, some people believe that an
ancient text from India describes sophisticated air flight by human pilots.
Written by Maharishi Bharadwaja in the 4th century BC (allegedly dictated while
he was in a trance), the Vaimanika-sastra seems to talk about piloting some
kind of aircraft – a vimana – with some astonishing capabilities.
Sounding
like a manual for aerial battle (or instructions to a video game), the text
claims to reveal 32 secrets of piloting a vimana, including:
§ Goodha – permits the pilot to make his vimana
invisible to his enemies.
§ Paroksha – enables the pilot to paralyze other
vimanas and put them out of action.
§ Pralaya – pushes an electrical force through
the “five-limbed aerial tube” so that the pilot may “destroy everything as in a
cataclysm.”
§ Taara – provides the pilot with another means
of avoiding contact with an enemy or hiding from observers: “By mixing with
ethereal force 10 parts of air force, 7 parts of water force, and 16 parts of
solar glow, and projecting it by means of the star-faced mirror through the
frontal tube of the vimana, the appearance of a star-spangled sky is created.”
§ Jalada roopa – instructs the pilot in the
correct proportions of certain chemicals which will envelop the vimana and give
it “the appearance of a cloud.”
Was
the Vaimanika-sastra simply imaginative writing, rich with symbolism and
religious meaning? Or was it a description of ancient yet advanced technology
that humankind was not to rediscover until the 20th century? source/credits:paranormal.about
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