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A Wing and A Prayer: Jumpers | |
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Many people throughout history have tried to fly by jumping from
heights and hoping that something would keep them afloat like the
birds, bats and bees. Occasionally the person would land safely and
preserve the idea that flight by man alone was possible. More often
the results were tragic. The isolated nature of these experiments
delayed the growth of knowledge. As communication improved, both
success and failure were studied and learned from, and progress
accelerated.
In 2200 B.C. the Chinese emperor Shin, in perhaps the first recorded attempt to fly, jumped from a high tower wearing two large straw hats. Luckily he landed safely. Many centuries passed before the next recorded jump. In 852 A.D. a man named Armen Firman jumped from a tower in Spain wearing a huge voluminous cloak, hoping that it would billow out and allow him to float gently to the ground. It did not, and he was fortunate to survive. A different technique was tried just a few years and miles away, in the Andalusians. A physician named Abbas ibn-Firmas tried to fly using wings. He covered himself with feathers, attached wings and, according to eyewitness accounts, flew for some distance. Trying to land like a bird he lost his balance and stability and crashed to the ground, severely injuring his back. He attributed his failure to not having a tail. For the next several centuries attempts at flight by jumping, with or without wings, occurred throughout Europe and Asia. For the most part they were brave but dismal failures, often resulting in injury and death. In 1678 the first article on attempted flight was published in a French magazine, detailing the experiments of a locksmith named Besnier who had attached wings to his arms and legs. Although unsuccessful, the record of his experiments came to the attention of scientists and inspired discussions that would further the development of aerodynamic principles. In 1797 a Frenchman, Andre-Jacques Garnerin, ascended in a hydrogen filled balloon to 6500 feet, then released himself in a basket attached to a parachute made of white canvas. Finally someone was able to jump, sail down and land safely on earth - 4000 years after Emperor Shin's hat trick. But note the incredible advance in a mere century from a feathered "bird man" jumping up and down to a mile high controlled descent. It is no coincidence that improved communication of ideas accelerated progress, as one experiment built upon another. From our vantage point we can look back through seemingly dark periods of history and see pinpricks of brilliant light. If these bright thoughts could have been shared widely at the time, the airplane may have been invented centuries ago. Emperor Shin was, after all, essentially the first parachutist. The principles which he tried to apply were simply not sufficiently developed. We will see this dilemma facing all the great minds in each major area of development
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