Sky-tinctured grain. Like Maia’s son he stood,
And shook his plumes, that heavenly fragrance filled
The circuit wide.
Leonardo da Vinci, who was a gifted engineer as well as an artist, devised a flying gear for man which shows some dynamic improvement over the mechanism of the old-time angels, flying gods, and hobgoblins. As shown in the accompanying sketch, it provided for gravitational balance by use of an expanding tail projecting well to the rear. Moreover, the propulsion was to employ both arms and legs. This design is considered very remarkable for the time in which it was produced, probably a few years before the discovery of America; and yet it is but one of Da Vinci’s quaint aëronautical inventions, as will appear later.
A less futile scheme of aviation may be to saddle the birds. If one eagle can float a child, a few may possibly carry a man. They are physically able; they are inexpensive; they are unwearied, nimble, swift. Some harness, some tuition may be required; but these come to the industrious. Apparently, such locomotion is a sport worth developing; a royal art, if you please; for who would not course the sky in a purple palanquin borne by imperial eagles?
Kai Kaoos, the King of Persia, is credited with a voyage of this kind, as described in the Shah-Nemeh, or King-Book, written in the tenth century:
“To the king it became a matter of great concern how he might be enabled to ascend the heavens, without wings; and for that purpose he consulted the astrologers, who presently suggested a way in which his desires might be successfully accomplished.
Fig. 1.—Da Vinci’s Designs for Human Flying-Gear.
“They contrived to rob an eagle’s nest of its young, which they reared with great care, supplying them with invigorating food.
“A frame of aloes-wood was then prepared, and at each of the four corners was fixed perpendicularly a javelin surmounted on the point with the flesh of a goat. At each corner again one of the eagles was bound, and in the middle the king was seated with a goblet of wine before him. As soon as the eagles became hungry they endeavored to get at the goat’s flesh upon the javelins, and by flapping their wings, and flying upwards they quickly raised the throne from the ground. Hunger still pressing on them, and still being distant from their prey, they ascended higher and higher in the clouds, conveying the astonished king far beyond his own country. But after a long and fruitless exertion, their strength failed them, and, unable to keep their way, the whole fabric came tumbling down from the sky, and fell upon a dreary solitude in the Kingdom of Chin, where Kai Kaoos was left a prey to hunger, alone, and in utter despair.”