Ancient Flying Machines: Facts And Criticism - Alternative View

Ancient Flying Machines: Facts And Criticism - Alternative View
Ancient Flying Machines: Facts And Criticism - Alternative View

Video: Ancient Flying Machines: Facts And Criticism - Alternative View

Video: Ancient Flying Machines: Facts And Criticism - Alternative View
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On December 12, 1903, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright brothers performed the first ever long-range, controlled flight in a self-propelled aircraft. In any case, this is how this event is evaluated today.

Was the feeling of flight familiar to man before, hundreds or even thousands of years ago? Some researchers are confident in the existence of data confirming this fact, but the knowledge of this - alas! - have been lost. Material evidence of flights in antiquity is presented by mysterious artifacts of South America and Egypt, as well as Egyptian rock paintings.

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The first example of this kind of objects was the so-called Colombian golden airplane. It dates from 500 BC. e. and refers to the tolima culture, whose representatives inhabited the highlands of Colombia in 200-1000. n. e. The discovered drawings are traditionally considered by archaeologists to be images of animals and insects, but some of their elements may be associated with the technology of creating aircraft. These include, in particular: the deltoid wing and the high vertical plane of the tail.

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Another example is a tombak pendant (an alloy of gold and copper in a 30:70 ratio), stylized as a flying fish. It belongs to the Kalima culture, which occupied the territory in the south-west of Colombia (200 BC - 600 AD). A snapshot of this pendant is in Erich von Deniken's book "The Gold of the Gods", published in 1972. The author believed that the find is an image of an aircraft used by unearthly space aliens. Although the figurine, according to archaeologists, was a stylized image of a flying fish, some features (in particular, the outline of the tail) have no analogues in nature.

Several other gold items were made by representatives of the Sinu culture who lived on the coast of Colombia in the years 300-1550. and famous for their jewelry art. They wore objects about 5 cm long around their necks like pendants on a chain. In 1954, the Colombian government sent part of the sinu products, along with a collection of other valuable artifacts, to an exhibition in the United States.

After 15 years, a modern reproduction of one of the artifacts was provided for research by cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson. He came to the conclusion that the subject has no analogues in the animal kingdom. The front wings in the shape of a triangle with smooth edges differ, for example, from the wings of animals and insects. Sanderson believed that they were more of a mechanical than a biological origin, and even went further in his reasoning, suggesting that the object was a model of a high-speed apparatus that existed at least 1000 years ago.

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The appearance of an airplane-like artifact prompted Dr. Arthur Poisley to conduct an experiment in an aerospace tube at the Institute of Aeronautics in New York, and he received positive results: the object could actually fly. In August 1996, a 16: 1 replica of one of the gold models was launched into the sky by three German engineers Algund Enbom, Peter Belting and Konrad Lebbers. From the results of the study, they concluded that the artifact more closely resembles a modern shuttle or the Concorde supersonic airliner than an insect.

Most of these amazing South American pendants had four wings (or two wings and a tail). They did not look like insects and birds known today. We can agree that these are stylized models, but their resemblance to airplanes and spaceships seems striking. However, if we assume that the objects are indeed models of some air vehicles that can fly, many questions arise.

The first problem is that predominantly the wings of the models are strongly shifted back, that is, they are located far from the center of gravity, which interferes with stable flight. The second is that the nose is completely different from the front of the aircraft.

Proponents of the ancient aircraft theory have done surprisingly little research to figure out the answer to the question of the origin of the artifacts. On websites, articles about airplanes in pre-Columbian America mostly refer to objects found in tombs in South or Central America, but most of the time they do not provide information about their origin or dating. Perhaps partly because of the still rampant plundering of ancient tombs in Colombia, the contents of which then appear on the South American antiques market.

Much of the Internet sites for ancient South American aircraft are compilations of an article by Lou-Mir by J. Yankou (1996) posted on the Anomalies and Mysteries website. In conclusion, it must be said that without establishing the origin of these amazing artifacts and the culture to which they belonged, it would be rash to consider them as models of ancient aircraft.

Another model, resembling a small plane, was found in the city of Saqqara in Egypt. Egyptologists consider it a hawk with spread wings and date it to the 4th - 3rd centuries. BC e. She was most likely found in 1898 in the tomb of Padi Imena in the northern part of Sakkara. The item, made of sycamore, is 14.2 cm long with a wingspan of 18.3 cm and weighs about 39 g. The hieroglyphs on the bird's tail read: "Offering to Amun", and the god Amun in ancient Egypt was usually associated with rain.

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The ancient model was kept in the Cairo Museum until 1969, until it was noticed by the professor of anatomy Khalil Messiha, who noticed that it resembles a modern plane or glider and, unlike the images of other birds in the museum, this object has no legs and feathers … According to Messih, the exhibit has a number of aerodynamic characteristics. After his brother, a flight engineer by trade, created a flying model out of balsa wood, Dr. Messih's confidence that the Saqqara bird was a scale model of an ancient glider was strengthened.

However, Martin Gregory of Harlow, Essex, disagrees with this conclusion. For over thirty years he has been designing, manufacturing and launching airframes. Experimenting with design, Gregory concluded that the model could not fly without the elevator (the fixed horizontal tail cover of the airplane), which the subject never had. Even after Gregory attached the elevator to the model, the results were not encouraging.

The researcher suggested that it was a weather vane or a children's toy. Larry Orkutt, user of the Popular Mysteries website, based on data on bird figures on the top masts of boats and ships, bas-relief images of the New Kingdom period (XII century BC) that can be seen in the Khonsu Temple in Karnak, named an object with a weather vane that showed the direction of the wind on the ship. Orkutt also noticed traces of paint on the back and tail. This may indicate that at one time the model of the bird was colorfully painted.

The black eyes, which are actually pieces of volcanic glass recessed into the subject's head, are not visible in most photographs of the subject, giving it an airplane-like appearance. So, although the bird from Saqqara has a couple of aerodynamic properties, the version that this is the only surviving model of an Egyptian aircraft seems unlikely. Most likely (this is evidenced by skillfully made boards for games and toys) the artifact was a figurine depicting a bird, or a child's toy.

Probably the most controversial evidence of flights in antiquity is the mysterious rock carvings made on the panel of the temple of the 19th dynasty Pharaoh Seti I in Abydos. These amazing drawings depict, it seems, a helicopter (possibly a tank) and something that looks like a spaceship or a jet plane. This so-called Abydos temple helicopter has become a legend.

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So, can these stunning hieroglyphs be considered evidence that the Egyptians in the XIII century. BC e. possessed technologies of the XXI century? Unfortunately, some of the photographs on the Internet have been digitally revised to emphasize aircraft-like features. However, there are other, unprocessed photographs with hieroglyphs similar to modern flying vehicles.

Katherine Griffis-Greenberg of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, like many archaeologists and Egyptologists, argues that unusual cave paintings are palimpsests - inscriptions overlaid on old ones. In the opinion of Egyptologists, in this case a layer of plaster was applied over some images and other drawings were made.

From time to time and under the influence of weather conditions, the plaster began to fall off, leaving fragments of old and new inscriptions, which, overlapping each other, created images reminiscent of modern aircraft. A significant part of the rock paintings are ancient Egyptian: the pharaohs who came to power tried to appropriate the achievements of their predecessors and belittle their authority. In the case of the helicopter depicted on the panel of the temple in Abydos, the following apparently happened: Pharaoh Ramsey II, who was behind such a sin, carved his own inscriptions on the stele of his predecessor, Pharaoh Seti I, so hieroglyphs with part of the title appeared in the text Ramses II, which are translated as: "One of two rulers, conquering nine foreign countries." This inscription overlapped the royal title of Pharaoh Seti I, originally carved in stone.

Those who believe in a helicopter from Abydos argue that in the cave palimpsests, the images drawn over the top exactly repeat the old lines - an incredible coincidence. However, there are other facts that deny the presence of aircraft in Ancient Egypt. One of them is the complete absence of mentions of any flying machines in all the known sources of Ancient Egypt. There should be similar images somewhere, but they are not!

In addition (this applies to all theories about ancient artifacts), there is no evidence of the existence of auxiliary technical means necessary for the creation of aircraft. Suppose that representatives of the cultures of Egypt and South America created cars, prototypes of helicopters and airplanes. But then there must be a colossal manufacturing industry, not to mention the extraction of fuels and metals. But what about the equipment of storage facilities?

Is it just that? If ancient people had flown modern airplanes and helicopters, there would surely be much more evidence than a collection of questionable models and a single panel of hieroglyphs carved into the temple above the doorway. Let's not deny that the human dream of flying owes its origin to many ancient cultures, including Indian literature. Perhaps it was this idea that inspired the inhabitants of South America to create mysterious models. And whether the dream was realized - this question remains controversial today.

Author: B. Houghton

"Great secrets and mysteries of history"

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