Balash Rasimovich Ismayilov - in the past a pilot, retired lieutenant colonel. He served almost his entire life in the Far East, the last fifteen years - in the Khabarovsk military district. Currently, he teaches basic military training at a secondary school in Khabarovsk. But this is his obvious side of life, and there is also a secret, which, however, many people know about: he is fond of history, but not in the broad sense of the word, but in the narrow sense of the word - Balash Rasimovich is interested in flying vehicles of antiquity, he studies them, collects all available information, and, if possible, travels in order to see with his own eyes in various museums those exhibits that attract his attention as a professional pilot
How was your hobby born?
- All my life I dreamed of the sky. I did not go to civil aviation because of fear for the lives of other people, because you never know what can happen to equipment, and death in a plane crash is the most terrible, because the passenger of the plane understands for a long time that he will die. In military aviation, you are not responsible for the lives of hundreds of people, but only for your own and the life of the crew. While serving in aviation, I could not help but think about what people did in past centuries, when they, like me, wanted to fly. 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. For me, the main thing in this myth was that it tells about man's eternal craving for the sky. And when there is such a craving, a person cannot but try to make his dream come true. I think,the end of Icarus was still not the same as in the myth. 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 myths and legends are not born out of nowhere, so that a myth arose, there were always some real events. And when I found out that the higher from the ground, the colder, I realized that there could be no talk of any wax melting. When I began to collect information about ancient flying machines seriously, I was surprised to learn that Daedalus is not a mythical character at all, but a historical person. 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 myths and legends are not born out of nowhere, so that a myth arose, there were always some real events. And when I found out that the higher from the ground, the colder, I realized that there could be no talk of any wax melting. When I began to collect information about ancient flying machines seriously, I was surprised to learn that Daedalus is not a mythical character at all, but a historical person. 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 myths and legends are not born out of nowhere, so that a myth arose, there were always some real events. And when I found out that the higher from the ground, the colder, I realized that there could be no talk of any wax melting. When I began to collect information about ancient flying machines seriously, I was surprised to learn that Daedalus is not a mythical character at all, but a historical person.that there could be no talk of any melting of wax. When I began to collect information about ancient flying machines seriously, I was surprised to learn that Daedalus is not a mythical character at all, but a historical person.that there could be no talk of any melting of wax. When I began to collect information about ancient flying machines seriously, I was surprised to learn that Daedalus is not a mythical character at all, but a historical person.
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. So, the invention did exist!
Why do you think so? Couldn't a poet simply retell a famous legend?
- I could, of course. But the fact that Daedalus - according to Ovid - was clearly aware of the strengths and weaknesses of his invention, for a thinking person says a lot. First of all, this indicates that we cannot talk about a myth. For any myth, the division into bad and good heroes is typical, the myth always idealizes objects and events, gives them only a certain set of properties: either positive or negative. In no myth will the hero talk about his mistakes and delusions, he will not analyze in detail the features of anything. Daedalus is sharply knocked out by a number of mythical heroes precisely by a detailed analysis of his own invention. This understanding prompted me to think that everything is not as simple as we all thought before.
And what happened then?
- Then I sat down to books, began to study everything that came to hand. In the 80s and 90s, it was rather difficult, the garrison libraries were not only poor, they were simply poor. When the Internet came along, it became much easier. Wandering through the bowels of the worldwide network, 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 very remarkable - it was like the roar of a lion,and about the traveler inside the viman it was said that he "could move through the air so high that he seemed like a pearl in the sky." 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 Yantra-Sarvasva (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 a temple in India. 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. 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 vimanas 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.
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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 dedicated 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 observation. 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 also seven energy sources set in motion by the vimaana,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.
This is all so incredible that I want to ask an ironic question: maybe these Vimans also flew into space?
- Don't be ironic! Because the Indian texts speak of space cities that, like huge orbital stations, revolved around the Earth.
It is clear that I use modern terms that are similar in meaning to those used in the manuscript. Communication between the Earth and the orbital stations was carried out by the vimanas. Some of them could carry a thousand or more people, while others - only one person. Just a few years ago, in Tibetan Lhasa, Chinese historians found a document written in Sanskrit, which was transferred to the university in the Indian city of Chandigarh for translation. So in this manuscript, as Professor Ruth Reyna, who made the translation, said, contains instructions on how to build interstellar ships using the principle of antigravity for movement. Antigravity is said in an ancient document to be "a centrifugal force powerful enough to counteract gravity."
Photo: Credit unknown / paranormal-news.ru
Is there something in the ancient Indian epics, to which you treat with distrust?
- Well, not that with distrust, I'm just a materialist, and I approach everything, first of all from a technical point of view, from the point of view of a modern professional: maybe or not. For example, the epics claim that the construction of an indestructible aircraft required the performance of certain occult rituals and the recitation of mantras. That vimanas could become invisible after certain manipulations. That the pilot could allegedly change the appearance of the viman, give it the appearance of a cloud for camouflage, to intimidate the enemy - the shape of a lion or a tiger, or even the appearance of a beautiful woman. Here, apparently, not to intimidate, but to distract attention. I do not presume to assert that all this did not exist, because the knowledge of the ancients is terra incognita for us, God knows them that they could actually be there. But I think,that the point is not in the possibility of a real change in the form of vimans, but in the hypnotic influence of the pilots on the enemy.
Vimaana figurine and possible appearance
Photo: Credit unknown / paranormal-news.ru
Have you found similar texts in other countries too?
- Found and continue to find. Similar texts have been 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, later the emperor ordered that it 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 in which 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 say that the secrets of flight were known only to the so-called Yavanas - 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,true, 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, a colored mosaic of fields sown with different cultures, rivers-strings and much more are mentioned that I, a 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 areas and landscapes. 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, a colored mosaic of fields sown with different cultures, rivers-strings and much more are mentioned that I, a 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 areas and landscapes. 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, a colored mosaic of fields sown with different cultures, rivers-strings and much more are mentioned that I, a 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 areas and landscapes.how it would be impossible to describe even from the tallest tree or rock: atmospheric haze, perspective distortions, a colored mosaic of fields sown with different cultures, rivers-threads and much more are mentioned that I, a 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 areas and landscapes.how it would be impossible to describe even from the tallest tree or rock: atmospheric haze, perspective distortions, a colored mosaic of fields sown with different cultures, rivers-threads and much more are mentioned that I, a 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 areas and landscapes.
Why did you do it?
- It was part of the training program: what if onboard cameras fail? The most incredible thing is that terrain characteristics of a similar degree of accuracy became available only in the 50s of the last century due to the possibility of flights at considerable altitude. In another Babylonian manuscript, "Silfr-ala", it is no longer about a giant eagle, but about a flying machine, and its detailed description is given. Rene Noonberg wrote about this well in his book. There are similar texts in Polynesia. Local legends speak of fair-skinned people who arrived from the west in "sparkling boats" that "sailed over the sea." Again, light-skinned people - like the Nepalese. The peoples of other island groups also have legends about "flying
Photo: Credit unknown / paranormal-news.ru
And 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 Columbia 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, i.e. in different places, 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. Figures 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 invented, they sawthat 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 jaws. 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. For that simple reasonthat not a single 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.
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One of the experts was aircraft expert Jack Ulrich Allrich. He argued that in front of him was a certain model, reminiscent of modern fighters and capable of moving at supersonic speed - 1185 kilometers per hour. In other similar figures, aviation experts saw a model of a "subaqua plane" - an underwater aircraft, a model of a single-use cargo aircraft for landing on water, a model of an aerospace aircraft with a reclining cockpit, and some other types of aircraft.
And what was the story with the testing of figures in a wind tunnel?
- Oh, this is an interesting story! 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. Suddenly, it 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 are “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.
There were other tests of the aerodynamic properties of Colombian airplanes, after which even the most stubborn skeptics admitted that these were not birds or flying fish, but airplanes. In Germany, in 1996, two aviation and aeromodelling enthusiasts - Peter Belting and Algund Enbom - created sixteen times enlarged copies of Colombian figurines. One copy was equipped with a conventional propeller, the other with a jet engine and both with radio control. The test was widely advertised, they invited aviators, historians, archaeologists, even zoologists were not forgotten. Everyone was shocked: the copies of the Colombian finds had excellent aerodynamic properties, they easily performed such aerobatics as a barrel and a dead loop. They had excellent maneuverability and glided freely even with the engine off.
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?
- How can you comment on this? Only so that at that time our ancestors were undoubtedly familiar with aviation. Until people in our time invented the helicopter, the image of these flying machines was considered meaningless icons, or rather, they could not be deciphered. They were discovered back in 1848 in the temple of Seti the First in Abydos. The 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 near 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 "Ash 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 Seti the First was “bee”. Why a bee?
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Maybe because he had something to fly? Another scandal erupted, and 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. They say that Ancient Egypt was surprisingly similar to Mars in its landscape, and therefore the Martians landed there. Ridiculousness, say? I also thought so, until the automatic research stations of the USA, sent to Mars, removed the "pyramids" and the "face of the sphinx" there. But the fact is that in the temple of Seti the First they found not only images of helicopters and heavy bombers, but also an image of a submarine. Moreover, also with the accuracy characteristic of the Egyptians, with a manic desire to prescribe all the details. As a result, scientists found themselves even farther from solving the mystery of the images than they ever were. After all, there are no seas on Mars. However, recent studies say there is water on Mars. Third researchers argue that the ancient Egyptian priests were able to either travel in time and in our era "spied" what helicopters, airplanes and submarines look like, or they had psychic abilities, in particular, clairvoyance and the ability to look into the future.
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 that the "brother" of the Colombian airplane was also found 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 kilometers per hour. Then, after the test, Egyptologists began digging 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 single 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.