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Flights of Fancy on Manmade Wings
In
commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ successful
achievement of the first manned, controlled, powered flight, David Tschanz
reports on Ibn Firnas’ first glider flight some 1100 years ago.
When
did man first fly? About 1100 years ago, if somewhat sketchy accounts are true.
It was then that the first, albeit short, glider flight is reported to have
occurred in Muslim Spain.
Stories
of humans flying are probably as old as humans themselves. About 3,400 years
ago, an old legend tells how Daedalus fashioned wings of feathers and wax so his
son Icarus could fly from prison on Crete to safety in Sicily. When Icarus flew
too close to the sun, the wax melted and he fell to his death.
While
this tale was a cautionary fable about recklessness, there were undoubtedly a
number of attempts to take to the sky. Some certainly ended as spectacular --
and fatal -- failures. Others left the erstwhile aviators with ruffled dignities
and injuries to testify incomplete and error-ridden engineering. Regardless,
they reflected one of mankind's enduring dreams and a stubborn refusal to accept
the belief that "man will never fly."
Ibn
Firnas Glides Over Cordoba
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Depiction
of Ibn Firnas’ flight over Cordoba
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Among
those who refused to accept this belief was Abbas Ibn Firnas. One of the
earliest scholars to come from Cordoba in Muslim Spain (Andalusia), he was a
typically eclectic thinker of the time, with a broad range of knowledge and
interests. Born in Korah Takrna near Ronda, Ibn Firnas studied chemistry,
physics, and astronomy. He originally came to Cordoba to teach music, which at
the time was actually a branch of mathematical theory. During experiments, he
managed to manufacture glass from sand and stone, and he is also credited with
inventing a time measuring devise called Al-Maqata.
The
citizens of Cordoba had seen persons attempt to fly before. In 852 a Muslim
inventor, Armen Firman, constructed a voluminous cloak, intending to use the
garment-like wings to glide. Jumping from a tower in Cordoba, Spain, Firman
survived with only minor injuries because his outfit caught enough air in its
folds to break his fall. While his attempt to fly was a failure, Firman had
invented a primitive version of the parachute.
About
875, Abbas Ibn Firnas built a flying apparatus placing feathers on a wooden
frame -- creating the first documented record of a very primitive glider.
One
of the two surviving versions of his flight states, "Having constructed the
final version of his glider, to celebrate its success he invited the people of
Cordoba to come and witness his flight. People watched from a nearby mountain as
he flew some distance, but then the glider plummeted to the ground causing him
to injure his back…"
The
second account adds that, after failing to land successfully, Ibn Firnas claimed
that he had not noticed how birds use their tails to land and that he had
forgotten the tail on his flying apparatus.
The
back injury prevented Ibn Firnas from trying again. Grounded, he went on to
create a mechanized planetarium with revolving planets that also simulated
thunder and lightning, and evolved a formula for manufacturing artificial
crystals. Soon after in 888 however, he died -- primarily as a result of an
ongoing struggle with his back injury from the flight.
Flights
of Fancy or Experience?
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On December 17, 1903, the Kitty Hawk Flyer succeeded in making the first manned, controlled, and powered flight
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Word
of Ibn Firnas' flight, despite its spectacular failure, spread outside of Spain.
What now becomes interesting is the new stories that follow and how they build
on one another. Ibn Firnas' basic failure to sustain flight was because he
neglected to include a tail. By 885 a new story was being told by the Vikings.
Their hero, Wayland, fashioned feathered wings to escape an island prison, much
like Daedaklus and Icarus. When his brother Egil tested them he crashed because
he'd reportedly failed to launch himself into the wind.
These
insights converge in a story told by the twelfth-century English historian
William of Malmesbury. He writes about an event in 1002 involving the
Anglo-Saxon monk, Eilmer, of Wiltshire Abbey:
Eilmer
... was a man learned for those times ... and in his youth had hazarded a deed
of remarkable boldness. He had by some means, I scarcely know what, fastened
wings to his hands and feet so that, mistaking fable for truth, he might fly
like Daedalus, and, collecting the breeze on the summit of a tower, he flew
for more than the distance of a furlong. But, agitated by the violence of the
wind and the swirling of air, as well as by awareness of his rashness, he
fell, broke his legs, and was lame ever after. He himself used to say that the
cause of his failure was forgetting to put a tail on the back part.
The
story of Eilmer's 220-yard glider flight has eerie similarities to the older
tales, especially Ibn Firnas'. But, like each of the older stories, Eilmer's
adds one more valuable bit of knowledge towards solving the riddle of flight. If
Firnas failed because he hadn't given himself a tail to land on, and Egil
crashed because he didn't launch his glider into the wind, Eilmer failed because
his glider didn't have a tail to provide lateral stability.
But
no one was ready to give up. Roger Bacon tried and failed. Leonardo Da Vinci's
spectacular crash from the bridge in Florence led to his discovery that the
shape of the wing was crucial to a bird's ability to remain airborne. In 1701, a
man from the Celebi family was rewarded 1,000 dinars for his flight across the
Bosphorus in Turkey.
The
conviction that man could fly gained flesh and blood as experience accumulated.
Finally the Wright Brothers added their chapter during a blustery windy day 100
years ago this coming December. This time success was backed with photos and
documents. In doing so, they made it clear that the old legends were more than
wishful flights of mere fancy or the dreams of madmen.
Epilogue
In
Qatar, the administrators of Doha International Airport have named their new
Airport Management System "FIRNAS." A statue has been built on the way
to the Baghdad International Airport to honor Ibn Firnas. He is commemorated on
a Libyan postal stamp, and a crater on the moon has been named after him.
Sources:
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Poore,
Daniel. A History of Early Flight. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1952
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Smithsonian
Institution. Manned Flight. Pamphlet 1990
David Tschanz
is a medical/military historian currently based in Saudi Arabia. He is also an epidemiologist, web developer, editor and demographer. You may contact him by sending your emails to: Desertwriter1121@yahoo.com.
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