Saqqara Bird

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The Saqqara Bird is a bird-like artifact made of sycamore wood, discovered during the 1891 excavation of the Pa-di-Imen tomb in Saqqara, Egypt. It dates back to at least 200 BC and is now housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It has a wingspan of 7.2 inches and weighs 39.120 grams. The artifact has a beak, holes for feathers, and eyes, and was painted to resemble a falcon with clear images and carving of feathers on the wings.

The purpose of the object is unknown. It could be a ceremonial object. The falcon is the icon of one of the most important gods in Egyptian mythology. Others have speculated it may have been a toy for an elite child, or that it could have functioned as a weather vane. Some have speculated it may have been used as a sort of boomerang, as such technology is not unusual among Paleolithic cultures, much less Neolithic and historical epochs. Perhaps the most intriguing speculation is that the "Bird" may show that an understanding of the principles of aviation existed many centuries before such are generally believed to have first been discovered. The Ancient Egyptians had knowledge to some extent of sail construction.[1] This is governed by the science of aerodynamics. A primary feature of a properly designed sail is an amount of "draft", caused by curvature of the surface of the sail. When the sail is oriented into the wind, this curvature induces lift, much like the wing of an airplane. It is unknown if the Ancient Egyptians had kites, but a team lead by Mory Gharib raised a 6,900-pound, 15-foot obelisk into vertical position with a kite, a system of pulleys, and a support frame.[2] Maureen Clemmons developed the idea that the ancient Egyptian used kites for work.[3]

Since the 5.6-inch long object closely resembles a model airplane, it has led one Egyptologist, Khalil Messiha [4], and others to speculate that the Ancient Egyptians developed the first aircraft. Messiha, who was the first to argue that the model did not represent a bird, wrote in 1983 that it "represents a diminutive of an original monoplane still present in Saqqara." He also claimed that the artifact could function as a glider if it had a tailplane, which he "suppose[s] was lost," and that the Egyptians often placed representations of their technology in their tombs.

Michael Frenchman likewise concluded that "the find is a scale model of a full-sized flying machine of some kind." According to the Augusta Chronicle, "a committee [of Egypt's Ministry of Culture] …concluded that the 7-inch-long model… seemed to incorporate principles of aircraft design that had taken modern engineers decades of experimentation to discover and perfect." Martin Gregorie, a designer of Free Flight gliders, built a replica of the Saqqara Bird made of balsa wood. After testing the replica, Martin Gregorie concluded that: "…the Saqqara Bird never flew. It is totally unstable without a tailplane… Even after a tailplane was fitted the glide performance was disappointing." He added that "the Saqqara Bird was probably made as a child's toy or a weather vane."

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Citations and notes
  1. ^ Hatshepsut oversaw the preparations and funding of an expedition of five ships, each measuring seventy feet long, and with several sails. Various other instances of Egyptian sailing vessels exist, also.
  2. ^ Caltech researchers successfully raise obelisk with kite to test theory about ancient pyramids
  3. ^ Caltech researchers successfully raise obelisk with kite to test theory about ancient pyramids
  4. ^ Messiha, Khalil et al (1991) “African Experimental aeronautics: A 2000-Year Old Model Glider” in Ivan Van Sertima (ed.) Blacks in Science. Op cit. pp. 92-99.
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