by Lumir G. Janku
1996
from
WorldMysteries Website
This object (shown in sketch) was found in 1898 in a tomb at
Saqqara, Egypt and was later dated as having been created near 200
BCE. As airplanes were unknown in the days when it was found, it was
thrown into a box marked "wooden bird model" and then stored in the
basement of the Cairo museum.
It was rediscovered by Dr. Khalil Messiha, who studied models made
by ancients. The "discovery" was considered so important by the
Egyptian government that a special committee of leading scientists
was established to study the object.
As a result of their findings, a special exhibit was set up in the
center hall of the Cairo museum, with the little model as its
centerpiece. It was even labelled as a model airplane.
To elucidate the reasons for the decision of the committee, almost
unprecedented in the field of archeology, let's consider some
aspects of the model. The model has the exact proportions of a very
advanced form of "pusher-glider" that is still having "some bugs
ironed out". This type of glider will stay in the air almost by
itself—even a very small engine will keep it going at low speeds, as
low as 45 to 65 mph., while it can carry an enormous payload. This
ability is dependent on the curious shape of wings and their
proportions. The tipping of wings downward, a reversedihedral wing
as it is called, is the feature behind this capability. A similar
type of curving wings are implemented on the Concorde airplane,
giving the plane a maximum lift without detracting from its speed.
In that context, it seems rather incredible that someone, more than
2,000 years ago, for any reason, devised a model of a flying device
with such advanced features, requiring quite extensive knowledge of
aerodynamics. There were no such things as airplanes in these times,
we are told by archeologists and historians. But this case seems to
be an exception, living in the midst of the rather unimaginative and
rigid paradigm of contemporary science. It is also necessary to
point out that Egyptians are known to have nearly always made
scale-models of projects and objects which they planned to create or
build.
Precolombian Airplane Models
Whatever this object is supposed to be or represent,
its remarkable resemblance to a modern aircraft or spacecraft is
uncanny. |
Is the concept of an airplane limited to Egypt? That doesn't seem to
be the case. Gold trinkets were found in an area covering Central
America and coastal areas of South America, estimated to belong to a
period between 500 and 800 CE, but since they are made from gold,
accurate dating is impossible and based essentially on stratigraphy
which may be deceptive. However, we can safely say that these gold
objects are more than 1000 years old.
As seen from the pictures, the shape of the sample object is rather
ambiguous. The archaeologists labelled these objects as zoomorphic,
meaning, animal shaped objects. The question is, what animal do they
represent? When we compare these with other objects from the same
cultures depicting animals, a curious facet of the comparison would
be obvious: the other objects are recognizable, rendered usually
with a great accuracy and attention to realistic detail.
There are several types of animals which fly—birds, insects, and
several mammals, such as bats and some gliders, for instance flying
squirrels, opossums, and then there are some lizards; there are
also some fish which for brief periods glide through the air. There
are water animals which seem to fly through the water, such as rays,
skates and some selachians. But how does the depicted object compare
with these choices? All its features taken into a consideration, we
have no match. Seen from above, the object obviously has no fish
features, but seems to show rather explicitly mechanistic ones.
The structures just in front of the tail are strongly reminiscent of
elevons (a combination of ailerons and elevators) with a slight
forward curve, but they are attached to the fuselage, rather than
the wings. In any case, they look more like airplane parts than like
the claspers of a fish. If the two prominent spirals on the wings
are supposed to be a stylized version of the eyes of a ray, then
what are the two globular objects positioned on the head supposed to
represent?
To complicate the identification even more, the spirals
on the wings have their copies positioned on the nose of the object,
in the opposite direction. When the object is viewed in profile, the
did similarity to anything from the animal kingdom is even more
pronounced. If the zoomorphic explanation is supposed to hold, then
why did the artist cut the head off almost three quarters from the
body? And why is the nose is practically rectangular and the cut
tilted forward, with eyes positioned at either side, when fish eyes
are usually more near the center of bodyline and far forward on the
head?
What we can make of the semicircular grooves on the inside of the
cut? What is it supposed to be—fishwise? And what about the scoop,
forward and under the cut? It is a scoop, not just a ridge for
drilling a hole through to place the object on a necklace chain.
Then there is another rectangular feature, positioned further back
at the approximate center of gravity under the fuselage.
The wings
when viewed from the side are perfectly horizontal, but when seen
from the front, they curve slightly downward. The elevators, which
are right behind the wings, are positioned on a slightly higher
horizontal level and are square-ended, thus a definite geometric
shape. Above them is another rectangular shape, with a relief which
may be reminiscent of knobs. The tail is equally intriguing. No fish
has only a single, upright and perpendicular flange. But this tail
fin has an exact shape of fins on modern airplanes. There are also
some markings on the tail which are hard to identify, but it does
not seem to be anything related to animals, either.
When all the features are taken into an account, the object does not
look like a representation of any known animal at all, but does look
astonishingly like an airplane. The photos and enlarged outline of
the object has been submitted for an analysis to several people from
the field of aerodynamics. One of them was Arthur Young, a designer
of Bell helicopters and other aircraft. His analysis confirmed that
the object contains many features which would fit the airplane
hypothesis, but there were several ones which would not fit that
scenario. Wings do seem to be in the wrong place—they should be
further forward so that their 1/4-chord coincides with the center of
gravity. The nose is not like anything on airplanes, as well. So,
while the object is suggesting an airplane, some features would not
seem to support this hypothesis.
But let's entertain several possibilities. If we imagine that the
separation after the windshield is not a cockpit and that the pilot
and the cargo were located somewhere in the main fuselage body, then
we can envision the nose as something else. Let's assume that the
nose is actually a jet. If the machine needs to slow down, the jet
flow directed against the path of flight would accomplish just that.
But how to redirect the jet into the opposite direction?
If we
envision the nose as a movable part of the plane, turning around the
point located where the nose and fuselage meet, thus pivoting the
nose downward to tuck it under the fuselage, that would enable the
desired effect. What's more, it will re-adjust the center of gravity
and the wings would be just in the right place for a high powered
flight.
Another problem, though, will appear and that is the drag
which would be created by the back of the nose now positioned in
front. But that can be attributed to artistic license. That seems to
be the case, because several other similar planes feature the back
part of the nose tilted more forward, so the angle of the back of
the nose when pivoted is more corresponding to aerodynamic
principles.
All things considered, the object seems to represent a convertible
type of craft, with two possible configurations:
One unsolved item remains—the spirals on the
both wings and the nose. According to Amerindian iconography, these
spirals have discernable meaning—they represent ascending and
descending, depending on whether they are right-oriented or
left-oriented, respectively. As the spirals are not only on wings
but also on the nose, the meaning is fairly obvious—the wings and
the nose (as much) were the features which were directly involved in
ascent and descent.
There are other cultures which mention flying vehicles of some sort
or another. The most known of these sources are Indian epics,
especially the Mahábhárata and other Védic sources as Bhágavata
Purána and Rámáyana. The flying devices were called
vimanas and were
extensively discussed in
Vaimánika Shástra, describing multitude of
machines with different purposes and capabilities.
Other source of information about flying machines may be considered,
such as the Bible and some apocryphal works. The Book of Ezekiel
seems to be
describing the close encounter of a man from a
non-technological culture with a device which to him must have been
miraculous. We have to put ourselves into his shoes to comprehend
his astonishment and the other worldness of his encounter. The
limited scope of knowledge of the world around him, his primitive
environment, dictated the language and conceptual framework with
which he tried to capture his encounter for fellow tribesmen. For
him it seemed that he encountered The God, with his suite of
angels,
because in his simple world, there was no other interpretation.
It
is not necessary to reach for an alien type of scenario to explain
the encounter; we can entertain a possibility that a remnant of an
advanced civilization was still present, in a limited scope, at the
time of Ezekiel. But for some, the encounter bears uncanny
similarity to the modern-day encounters with UFO's. Another source
of similar material is the
Book of Enoch, particularly the Slavic
version, which contains some parts which the Greek version is
missing. The book not only describes flying in the air, but also
through outer space, including the relativistic effects
mentioned—Enoch spent several days on a spacecraft, but when he
returned to Earth, several centuries had passed by.
There is no shortage of descriptions of flying machines in ancient
sources. If we try to extract the core of myths of different
provenience and remove the embellishments, we discover to our
surprise that flying in ancient times seems to be the rule, not the
exception.
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