The Airplanes of Ancient Civilizations

$Leonardo da Vinci\'s Flying machine, the precursor to the airplane!$

Leonardo da Vinci’s Flying machine, the precursor to the airplane. / Photo from TechMuseum

Man has always wanted to fly since the wake of human civilization. It would be great injustice to the efforts of the ancient men if we suppose that aircrafts were not made until the 18^th century. The same history that gives you the accounts ofLeonardo Da Vinci and Wright Brothers hides within its fold much older mysterious evidences of early aircrafts made by anonymous men of various forgotten world cultures.

If you dig a little beneath the mythical surface, you will come across well-documented ancient accounts of advance technology and craft used for making airplanes, beyond the domain of modern imagination. Some of the remnants of this outstanding old technological knowledge are evident in the rare artifacts, inscriptions and symbolic carvings preserved in some of our museums while some others lie open on the face of earth, exposed to the elements.

The Ancient Egyptian airplanes

A panoramic view of the pyramids at Saqqara, they are much older than the ones at Giza. It is located south of Cairo. / Photo from Just A Slice

If you visit Room Number 22 of Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, you will see a curious wooden model that approximates the shape of a modern glider or aircraft. This little wooden bird/airplane structure was first discovered in 1898 at a tomb close to Saqqara and deemed to belong to 200 B.C. Dr. Khalil Messiha was the first scholar to study this model dedicatedly and bring it to limelight.

Side view of the glider model of Saqqara-the model resembles a bird but with vertical tail, no legs and straight wings / Photo from Dawoudk

Under his initiative, the artifact measuring 5.6 inches in length and 7.2 inches of wingspan gave rise to speculations about ancient Egyptians possessing aeronautics technology. Interestingly, this model was found to have a very advanced ‘pusher-glider’ mechanism that can keep it air-borne at speed limits of 45 to 65 mph. Its assumed ability to carry a heavy weight during its flight was greatly attributed to its downward-pointing wings.

Although archaeologists and historians have challenged the existence of airplanes in ancient Egypt, this model has stood its ground as a proof against that for believers. Scientists have also stressed that Egyptians were known to create a miniature prototype of large-scale projects they planned to form. Viewed in that light, this bird-like artifact indeed appears to be a mini plane even to non-professionals.

$abydos \'helicopter\' glyphs$

Abydos Temple Reliefs / Photo from bigkahuna3

Abydos Helicopter and Submarine / Photo from wciu

Did the Ancient Indians have airplanes 2000 years ago?

Reaching out to the skies… – Kesava temple, Somanathapura / Photo from Nagesh

Dating back to the epical times, the modern Northern India and Pakistan area that was the hot seat of science and culture has yielded written texts talking about people using a sophisticated form of airplanes called ‘Vimanas’. Going by these accounts, a Vimana used to be a two-tier, circular vessel looking like a flying saucer with a dome and portholes. Vimanas were also made in cylindrical or cigar shapes and had phenomenal speed and melody characterizing their flight.

The ancient Indian creators of these wonder ships wrote down ‘instruction manuals’ on the varieties and control system of Vimanas that have found their way into the modern world and even translated to English. The ‘Samaranga Sutradhara’ is one such text of 230 stanzas that gives you an elaborate description on the detailed technicalities of air travel. The ‘Vaimanika Sastra’ belonging to the 4^th BC is another text with airplane diagrams composed by the sage Bharadvajy that speaks of emergency flight means, ideal materials for making an airplane and use of renewable energy sources to fly them.

An illustration of the Shakuna Vimana with hinged wings and tail, drawn in 1923 under instruction of S. Shastry, author of the Vaimanika Shastra

An interesting assumption about these Vimanas is that they could defy gravitational force and take off vertically from the ground in the manner of a helicopter! There used to be garages called ‘Vimangriha’ for parking the planes. These Vimanas were possibly propelled by gasoline, although there is confusion over this and some find the description matching mercury. A team of Russian scientists has even discovered glass or porcelain ensembles in the Turkstani caves that resemble navigating cosmic vehicles.

You will find discreet references to Vimanas even in the Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana. The references to Bhima’s chariot flying to Tibet and Ravana’s Puspak Rath are bright reminders of aeronautics technology. If that sounds like a fairy-tale, the Vedic references to the Vimanas will change your view. Mention is made of the dual-engine “ahnihotra-vimana” and the multiple-engine “elephant-vimana”. The Vedic technology was taken seriously by a Sanskrit scholar Shivkar Bapuji Talpade who came up with a unique unmanned plane in 1895 called “Marutsakthi”, which took a height of 1500 feet before crash landing. This first Indian aircraft design was entirely based on the rich treasury of India’s Vedas.

Thousand-Year-Old Airplanes from Ancient America