The Saqqara plane-bird-toy… Weathervane!
“In room 22 of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt, there is a wooden object that appears very similar to a modern airplane or glider. In fact, it is so similar that some have offered it as proof that the ancient Egyptians possessed the technology of flight. The artifact is made of wood and has a length of 5.6 inches and a wingspan of 7.2 inches. It was found in a tomb near Saqqara in 1898 and has been dated to about 200 B.C.“
The folks at Anomalist mentioned (thanks!) the relation between the pre-Columbian gold artifacts and the so-called Saqqara bird. I had already seen it mentioned before, but had never looked upon it with much interest, assuming that well, it could be a bird, it could be really a model airplane. The Chinese had bamboo model “helicopters“ long ago. That’s not proof of very advanced technology per se — whereas the pre-Columbian gold artifacts had delta wings and what did look like jet engines. Intriguing, but it turned out they were really flying fishes.
But I looked upon it to comment with more information, and I’m really glad that I did, because I just found a very nice series of pages discussing the Saqqara object, by Larry Orcutt. It includes drawings of the object, and most importantly, detail the reproduction of it and seminal test: did it really fly?
Be sure to check the links, though I may have given away the answer in the title of this post.
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The Saqqara ‘airplane’ may have been nothing more than kid toys for ancient Egyptian playtime. It’s funny how our online education can steer us in some wacky directions. Of course, if the aliens did have contact with ancient Egypt, maybe all of our supposed technology is nothing more than alien kid games?
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Here is some fodder for your keen-eyed skepticism. The following are excerpts from “Dead Men’s Secrets” written by archaeologist Jonathan Gray:
“73 (S): Fourteen model airplanes found in various tombs may be
replicas of full size airplanes of over 2,000 years ago.
One model recently flew perfectly, demonstrating a knowledge of
aerodynamics on the part of its makers.16
As most Egyptian tomb models are linked to larger originals, it is
possible that under the desert sands there may be remains of life-size gliders.
Clearly the models were not accidental or merely toys. Rather, they
were the end product of an enormous body of computation and
experimentation, embodying principles of aircraft design that have taken
European and American designers a century of experimental work to
discover and perfect.
“Fig. 26—1b. This object, once thought to be a bird, was found in a tomb at Saqqara. Egypt,
in 1898. Stuffed in a box of bird models in one of Cairo Museum’s store-rooms, it was
rediscovered in 1969 and found to fly perfectly as a glider, though there are indications that it
may originally have possessed a propulsion mechanism at the tail. The design is highly
sophisticated.” (NOTE: The images that are supposed to accompany this did not copy, but they are of the same object you have imaged in your post. radiorick)
“99 (S): A breastplate found in the tomb of Tutankhamen bore a diagram
which upon analysis was found to depict parts of a plane. (Like other
unexplained tomb drawings, it had long been considered just a pretty
picture.) In 1982, Deiches built from the diagram a working model—and
yes, it flew!
Deiches’ theory that aircraft were in regular use 4,000 years ago so
impressed the British Royal Aeronautical Society that in August 1984 they
endorsed his plan to obtain a financial sponsor so that he can build a replica
of this ancient plane.”
Of interest to me, and possibly your many other readers, would be any depictions of this breast plate and commentary on the same.
“…found in a tomb at Saqqara…and found to fly perfectly as a glider”
Not correct at all but everyone still claims this load of rubbish.
http://www.catchpenny.org/birdtest.html
“The performance of this model proves conclusively that the Saqqara Bird never flew. It is totally unstable without a tailplane. A cursory inspection of the photos shows that it never had one.”
Sort of a ‘crash and burn’ huh?
Cheers