Balash Ismayilov - a former pilot, retired lieutenant colonel. Almost all his life he served in the Far East. But this is his obvious side of life, and there is also a secret: he is carried away by history, but not in the broad sense of the word, but in the narrow one.
Ismayilov is interested in flying machines of antiquity, he studies them, collects all available information, and, if possible, travels to see with his own eyes in various museums those exhibits that attract his attention as a professional pilot.
How was your hobby born?
- While serving in aviation, I could not help but think about what people did in past centuries, when they wanted to fly just like me. Since childhood, I have been interested in ancient legends and myths about human flights. The very first was the ancient Greek myth of Icarus and Daedalus, I read it when I was ten. If you remember, the wax that held the feathers in Icarus's wings melted from approaching the sun, and Icarus fell. When I was little, I believed in it.
When I became an adult, I realized that the end of the myth was clearly not invented by those who stood at its origins, because the higher from the earth, the colder. Therefore, there could be no talk of any melting of wax. When I started collecting information about ancient flying machines seriously, I was surprised to learn that Daedalus is not a mythical character at all, but a historical person. The ancient Roman poet Ovid wrote about him in his work "Metamorphoses". He spoke of Daedalus as a skilled architect and inventor.
And what happened then?
- I sat down to books, began to study everything that came to hand. In the 80s and 90s it was quite difficult, the garrison libraries were not only poor, but poor. When the Internet came along, it became much easier. Wandering through its depths, I came across a message from the International Academy for the Study of Sanskrit. It talked about the ancient Indian manuscript "Samaranga Sutradhara", which mentioned the numerous flights of man with the help of certain devices called vimanas.
This word comes from the Sanskrit concept meaning "celestial chariot". Vimanas were made of metal, the sheets of which were very carefully fitted to each other, and, judging by the text, by welding. They were set in motion by "controlled fire from steel containers." Their sound was also quite remarkable - it was like the roar of a lion, and it was said about the traveler inside the viman that he "could move through the air so high that he seemed like a pearl in the sky."
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Thirty-two "secrets" were needed to manage them. Then I learned about another Indian manuscript - Vimanika Shastra. This was a section of the voluminous treatise Yantrasarvasva (encyclopedia of machines), the author of which is believed to be the sage Bharadvajya, who is mentioned in the Mahabharata. Vimanika Shastra was found in 1875 in one of the Indian temples. According to scholars, this treatise was written in the IV century BC on the basis of even earlier texts and was something like a practical guide for the construction and operation of vimanas. This treatise also described aircraft and devices on them, only in more detail. From these descriptions, one can easily recognize devices that performed the functions of a camera, radar, searchlight, etc.
Apparently, these devices used the energy of the sun. There are also descriptions of various types of weapons, with destructive power. It is curious that quite a lot of space in the treatise is devoted to the description of the pilots' clothing and even their diet. Vimanas were also described in the more famous Indian epics - in the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The last epic alone contains forty-one passages where they are mentioned. By the way, there are not only references to vimanas in ancient texts, there is also their image - in the caves of the Elolor temple in India.
It turns out that in those distant times people knew how to handle metal at the level of modern technologies?
- Yes, it turns out that way. In 1875, this made a splash, especially considering the level of technology of the 19th century and the complete absence of aircraft, which, as they say, were not even in the project yet. Experts both that year and nowadays recognized the manuscript as genuine. As for metal, a special chapter was devoted to it in the treatise. Three types of metals were mentioned: soundalika, maurthvika and somaka. They also talked about alloys that could withstand very high temperatures. Another chapter was devoted to optics - mirrors and lenses that could be installed on board vimans for visual observations. There were seven of them. One was called the "Mirror of Pinjula" and was intended to protect the pilots' eyes from the blinding "devil's rays" of the enemy.
By the way, there were seven energy sources that set the vimaanas in motion, and they could be used as if in turn, switching the engine from one energy to another. The Vimanas themselves were of four types: Rukma Vimana, Sundara Vimana, Tripura Vimana and Shakuna Vimana. The first two have a conical shape and three "tiers", in the second - a room for passengers. Tripura Vimana is a larger “plane” that can also be used as an underwater vehicle. Shakuna Vimana is the most difficult in technical and constructive terms.
All four types had vertical take-off and could, among other things, soar in the air like airships and make a zigzag flight. It is curious that the treatise contains not only a description of the "airplanes", but also safety rules - precautions for long flights, protection measures against lightning and storms, etc. On their vimanas, the ancient Indians flew not only over India, but throughout Asia and, as the ancient texts say, even over the ocean.
Have you found similar texts in other countries too?
- Similar texts were found in Pakistani Mohenjo-Daro, Easter Island, China. The Chinese documents are very interesting. They can even be regarded as something like a historical chronicle of experimental aviation. The "youngest" date back to 2000 BC. In one of these documents, I read that in 1766 BC, Emperor Cheng Tang ordered the construction of a flying machine, and it was created. However, he later ordered that she be destroyed. Apparently, he was afraid that the secret of flight would fall into the hands of other peoples. The descriptions of the poet Chu Yong, who lived in the 3rd century BC, are very interesting. He described a flying machine that he personally flew over the Gobi Desert. Descriptions of flying vehicles are also found in the oral folk art of the peoples of Nepal. Nepalese epics saythat the secrets of flight were known only to the so-called javanas - fair-skinned people from the east of the Mediterranean. Apparently, we are talking, among other things, about the ancient Hellenes, in whose myths, in addition to the myth of Icarus, there are other references to human flights with the help of some auxiliary means. There are references to flying in aircraft and in ancient Babylon.
The ancient Babylonian Chalcata law, for example, states that “it is a great privilege to drive a flying machine. The knowledge of flight is one of the most ancient, it is a gift from the gods of antiquity, intended to save lives. " Aircraft are also mentioned in the ancient Babylonian "Epic of Ethan", written two and a half thousand years BC. There, however, it is said that the Sumerian king flew on the back of a giant eagle. What kind of eagle it was - a now extinct gigantic tamed bird or the authors of the epic compared an airplane with an eagle - is unknown, but something else is remarkable: the epic describes what the man flying on the "eagle" saw from above. Moreover, it is described in a way that would be impossible to describe even from the tallest tree or rock: atmospheric haze, perspective distortions,colorful mosaic of fields sown with different cultures, rivers-strings and much more that I, the pilot, constantly saw from the cockpit. These descriptions are similar to the verbal portrait of the area that we made at the school, flying over various landscapes.
What can you say about the legendary "Colombian airplane"?
- This is one of the most interesting finds confirming that in ancient times people knew how to fly. The Colombian Airplane is a four-centimeter gold figurine. More precisely, he is not alone, there is a whole squadron of them - thirty-three such figures were found! These finds were made in the 19th century, not only in Colombia, but also in Peru, Costa Rica and Venezuela, which indicates their wide distribution. Usually they date back to 500 - 800 BC, however, it is known to be very difficult to accurately determine the age of gold items, and the dating may turn out to be inaccurate. The figurines took their place in museums, and for a long time they were considered zoomorphic images.
This was considered until the first third of the last century, because people simply had nothing to compare with - they had not yet invented airplanes! But when they were invented, they saw that although the appearance of these figures is different, the basic design of the aircraft with horizontal and vertical tail fin is common. The most interesting thing is that the first to notice this similarity was not the pilot, but the jeweler Emmanuel Staub. Skeptics continue to argue that these "airplanes" are nothing more than an image of long-extinct animals.
They think so because many "airplanes" depict eyes, toothy mouths. However, experts, including the famous American biologist, writer and naturalist, famous for his works on cryptozoology and Bigfoot, Terence Sanderson, to whom Staub sent a copy of the "airplane", argue that they can in no way be equated with any of the representatives known to science. both fossil and modern fauna of the planet.
On the simple reason that no bird has vertical plumage on its tail! Scientists did not calm down on this and decided to involve aviation experts in the case. Copies of the figures were sent to them, and all experts from different countries, not knowing each other, unanimously announced that they were in front of them model airplanes. Aviators identified the cockpit, fuselage, wings, stabilizers, keel in the figures.
And what was the story with the testing of figures in a wind tunnel?
- In 1956, the "Colombian airplane" and its "brothers" were exhibited at the exhibition "Gold of Pre-Columbian America" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The aircraft designers of one American company immediately noticed the deltoid wing of this figure and the vertical plane of the tail. That's what Sanderson was talking about. They somehow came to an agreement with the exhibition management and tested the "airplane" in a wind tunnel. It suddenly turned out that the "airplane" behaves best at supersonic speeds, the study of which was in full swing. They began to think why, and came to the conclusion that the deltoid wing and the high vertical plane of the tail unit were to blame. Specialists from the design bureau of the company were involved, and as a result, the best supersonic aircraft for that period was created. The firm was called Lockheed.
If some figures were found in Peru, then maybe it was from such aircraft that the creators of the mysterious lines on the Nazca plateau were led?
- Many researchers of the aviation of ancient people are inclined to this opinion. I also adhere to this point of view. But the most surprising thing about these airplanes is not their aerodynamic properties, but the badges that are applied to them. They are strikingly reminiscent of the Phoenician script. This, in my opinion, suggests that the people of antiquity had an airborne intercontinental communication, otherwise how could Phoenician writing on South American subjects? And one more question torments me: where the South American Indians could see prototypes for their crafts?
How can you comment on the images of planes and helicopters found in Egypt?
- Only so that at that time people were undoubtedly familiar with aviation. Until the helicopter was invented in our time, the image of these flying machines was considered meaningless icons, or rather, they could not decipher. They were discovered back in 1848 in the temple of Seti the First in Abydos. Images of "helicopters" were located directly above the entrance to the temple, almost under the very ceiling, at a height of about ten meters. In this temple in general there were a lot of mysterious images that baffled Egyptologists. In the 19th century, they were considered ancient mechanisms, and only in our time have scientists come to the conclusion that this is an image of helicopters, and data from different angles.
Aviators clearly distinguish between the fuselage, main rotor, blades, and tail assembly. Images of other aircraft were found alongside the helicopters, remarkably similar to modern supersonic fighters and heavy strategic bombers. It turns out that the ancient Egyptians used military aircraft? This is the question, by the way, was asked about ten years ago by a very respectable Arab newspaper "Al Sharq al-Awsat" when it published photographs from the temple in Abydos.
The hype began, someone even began to explain the military successes of Pharaoh Seti the First by the use of aviation, someone shouted that these were all idle fictions. Then the famous Egyptologist Alan Alford began to study the strange images. He made a convincing conclusion that helicopters were indeed depicted on the wall of the temple, and with such precision, as if an ancient artist had made images from nature. Similar images were found in the Karnak Temple. Then one of the Egyptologists remembered another curious detail: one of the names of the Pharaoh of Seti the First was "bee". Why a bee? Maybe because he had something to fly? Another scandal erupted, an ardent supporter of the extraterrestrial origin of the ancient Egyptian civilization - the world famous ufologist Richard Hoagland - joined in. He claims that the Egyptians descended from the Martians who once visited Earth.
And what opinion do you tend to?
- I don't really believe in aliens, it seems to me that these planes, helicopters, Colombian, Indian, Egyptian and others are the legacy of an ancient earthly civilization that has disappeared somewhere. I don't really believe in time travel either. If the Egyptians traveled in a time machine, why shouldn't they portray modern sea-going ships or ballistic missiles? I prefer the historian William Deutsch's version that Tutankhamun died in a plane crash. This is evidenced by the damage to his bones. True, Deutsch talked about balloons, but I think that the pharaohs flew on more advanced devices. By the way, many Egyptian mummies had bone damage that can only be obtained by falling from a great height.
They say they found the "brother" of the Colombian airplane in Egypt?
- Yes, he was found in the burial of Pa-de-Ilmen, in the tomb of Zadoiaga in 1898. The age of the find is determined by two thousand years with a tail. "Airplane" is exhibited at the Cairo Historical Museum. It is small, about fifteen centimeters long, made of very strong and hard wood. It is very similar to the Colombian figurines, with the same wings and vertical keel feathering. Scientist Khalil Messiha in 1969 provided an exact copy of a wooden figurine with a motor and a propeller. As a result, the model was able to reach a speed of 105 km / h. Then, after the test, Egyptologists began to delve into the museum's storerooms and found there fourteen more similar ancient Egyptian "airplanes".
What conclusion can be drawn from all this?
- It is difficult to admit that people who have lived at different times and in different places give the same descriptions by agreement. Apparently, the aviation of the ancients existed, and I would very much like it not to be carried out by lone researchers, but to create special research institutes. It's time to face the truth and admit that we don't know anything thoroughly from our history.
Valentin SLAVKO.
(Based on materials from the site "Aviators and their friends")