The Evidence For Ancient Flight
Keywords: aliens, ancient alien theory, conspiracy, historical
I just came across a history channel documentary called "Ancient Aliens". It seemed like it would be something fun to watch and laugh at, so I have a saved recording of Episode 1: The Evidence.
I just watched the first 13 minutes which deals with the possibility of ancient flight, after which it moves on to ancient forms of space travel. I just thought to myself "Hell, this first segment is pretty much enough material for me to write a good sized blog post about!", so here I am.
I just came across a history channel documentary called "Ancient Aliens". It seemed like it would be something fun to watch and laugh at, so I have a saved recording of Episode 1: The Evidence.
I just watched the first 13 minutes which deals with the possibility of ancient flight, after which it moves on to ancient forms of space travel. I just thought to myself "Hell, this first segment is pretty much enough material for me to write a good sized blog post about!", so here I am.
Let's take a look at the evidence that ancient people possessed the power of flight... possibly given to them by... ALIENS!!!!
First we're told about a figurine of a bird discovered in Saqqara, Egypt in an ancient tomb:
Nobody thought much of it at first, but then people began noticing something peculiar. Aerospace engineer Dr. Uwe Apel explains:
Right... because those eyes and that beak look so realistic. And because the Egyptians always created their art to mimic nature as exactly as possible.
But I'll concede that the bird's shape does look a little strange. The argument here is that the wings are thicker near the middle, and taper off near the ends, They're also slightly swept downward at the ends. This makes their design very aerodynamic.
The documentary also points out that the tail seems a bit strange, since birds tails are not vertical. What purpose could this serve?
So they made a large scale replica of the bird and put it in a wind tunnel. They found that it was very aerodynamic, the only thing missing was a rear stabilizing rudder. And you can clearly see that there's a notch on the bird's tail where such a rudder could have possibly been attached.
This is actually pretty interesting, but it's here that they take this tremendous leap and suggest that this bird may have been a model of an actual full sized glider which carried humans.
Seriously, that's one monumental leap. If this is, in fact, a glider, why should it be representative of something bigger? Why couldn't it be just some sort of cute little gliding toy that the ancient Egyptians might have thrown just like kids today throw paper airplanes?
We know that people knew how to make gliding shapes long before the Wright Brothers ever did anything at Kitty Hawk. And we know that ancient people were perfectly capable of creating aerodynamic flying objects like arrows and boomerangs.
What possible reason do we have to extrapolate from this that ancient people might have created larger scale versions that would seat people?
As giant and unwarranted a leap as this is, the show makes it. They start speculating about how the ancient Egyptians might have gotten the gliders to fly, since modern gliders often need the help of a tow plane. This quote is from Dr. Algune Eenboom, co-author of the book "Aircraft Of The Pharohs":
I'll wait while you pick yourself up off the floor and stop laughing.
I'm picturing some ancient Egyptian screaming his lungs out as his catapult propelled glider hurdles away, spinning head over tail until it smacks into the side of a mountain. This Dr. Eenboom seriously believes that you could get some sort of controlled lift off using an ancient catapult!
And what exactly does he mean that they "had high acceptance by Egyptian scientists"? High acceptance of what? What question did they ask, and what kind of answers did they get?
My guess is that the response was something along the lines of "Sure, it wasn't theoretically beyond the limits of Egyptian technology to launch something like this with a catapult..."
And apparently from this, we're supposed to make a further tremendous leap and infer that if the ancient Egyptians had this kind of technology, perhaps it was because of their encounters with aliens.
Even if it were true that the ancient Egyptians had these kinds of gliders, why should that be any indication of alien intervention? All the explanations provided so far rely completely on the technology that the ancient Egyptians already had available at hand. If it were true that they could fly, it would be remarkable.... but it wouldn't require aliens to explain it.
And here is where the show moves on from possible ancient Egyptian flight and moves to the jungles of Columbia, where some interesting ancient artifacts were unearthed. Among some small, golden fish and insect figurines they found a few that looked... to some... like fighter jets:
| It's interesting because on one hand, clearly it should look like a bird, because it has eyes and the tubical nose of a bird. On the other hand, the wings are clearly not bird wings. |
Right... because those eyes and that beak look so realistic. And because the Egyptians always created their art to mimic nature as exactly as possible.
But I'll concede that the bird's shape does look a little strange. The argument here is that the wings are thicker near the middle, and taper off near the ends, They're also slightly swept downward at the ends. This makes their design very aerodynamic.
The documentary also points out that the tail seems a bit strange, since birds tails are not vertical. What purpose could this serve?
So they made a large scale replica of the bird and put it in a wind tunnel. They found that it was very aerodynamic, the only thing missing was a rear stabilizing rudder. And you can clearly see that there's a notch on the bird's tail where such a rudder could have possibly been attached.
This is actually pretty interesting, but it's here that they take this tremendous leap and suggest that this bird may have been a model of an actual full sized glider which carried humans.
Seriously, that's one monumental leap. If this is, in fact, a glider, why should it be representative of something bigger? Why couldn't it be just some sort of cute little gliding toy that the ancient Egyptians might have thrown just like kids today throw paper airplanes?
We know that people knew how to make gliding shapes long before the Wright Brothers ever did anything at Kitty Hawk. And we know that ancient people were perfectly capable of creating aerodynamic flying objects like arrows and boomerangs.
What possible reason do we have to extrapolate from this that ancient people might have created larger scale versions that would seat people?
As giant and unwarranted a leap as this is, the show makes it. They start speculating about how the ancient Egyptians might have gotten the gliders to fly, since modern gliders often need the help of a tow plane. This quote is from Dr. Algune Eenboom, co-author of the book "Aircraft Of The Pharohs":
| The scientifics of Egyptology told us that such a bird could be powered by catapults to fly, and we had high acceptance by Egyptian scientists |
I'll wait while you pick yourself up off the floor and stop laughing.
I'm picturing some ancient Egyptian screaming his lungs out as his catapult propelled glider hurdles away, spinning head over tail until it smacks into the side of a mountain. This Dr. Eenboom seriously believes that you could get some sort of controlled lift off using an ancient catapult!
And what exactly does he mean that they "had high acceptance by Egyptian scientists"? High acceptance of what? What question did they ask, and what kind of answers did they get?
My guess is that the response was something along the lines of "Sure, it wasn't theoretically beyond the limits of Egyptian technology to launch something like this with a catapult..."
And apparently from this, we're supposed to make a further tremendous leap and infer that if the ancient Egyptians had this kind of technology, perhaps it was because of their encounters with aliens.
Even if it were true that the ancient Egyptians had these kinds of gliders, why should that be any indication of alien intervention? All the explanations provided so far rely completely on the technology that the ancient Egyptians already had available at hand. If it were true that they could fly, it would be remarkable.... but it wouldn't require aliens to explain it.
And here is where the show moves on from possible ancient Egyptian flight and moves to the jungles of Columbia, where some interesting ancient artifacts were unearthed. Among some small, golden fish and insect figurines they found a few that looked... to some... like fighter jets:
I think you have to seriously force your imagination in order to see any resemblance between these figurines and modern fighter jets. But there's some sort of general similarity... you've got wings, a tail, and a body or "fuselage".
Giorgio Tsoukalos, publisher of "Legendary Times" magazine, says that they're "errily similar to modern day fighter jets". I'd kind of like to know what he's smoking. But he goes on to say:
I think he's hoping that people will skip over the part where he says "one of the things which remains", and just assume what he's implying, that the only other possible explanation is that this is a figurine of an aircraft.
I'm not sure why we need to exclude any possibility on the basis of this evidence. Why should we expect that the ancient Columbians didn't take artistic liberties to create something new and interesting? A minute or so before this we're shown some examples of other figurines from the same collection, including this fish:
Giorgio Tsoukalos, publisher of "Legendary Times" magazine, says that they're "errily similar to modern day fighter jets". I'd kind of like to know what he's smoking. But he goes on to say:
| There is not a single insect in the world which has got it's wings at the bottom. When you exclude the possibility that it's an insect, one of the things which remains is that this is what it looks like, a plane. |
I think he's hoping that people will skip over the part where he says "one of the things which remains", and just assume what he's implying, that the only other possible explanation is that this is a figurine of an aircraft.
I'm not sure why we need to exclude any possibility on the basis of this evidence. Why should we expect that the ancient Columbians didn't take artistic liberties to create something new and interesting? A minute or so before this we're shown some examples of other figurines from the same collection, including this fish:
I don't believe that the ancient Columbians ever saw a fish that actually looked like this. I seriously doubt that such a fish exists. If anybody knows of any, I'd be very interested to learn about them. But I think it's pretty obvious that there's some artistic license going on here.
Or maybe this was an alien fish! Yes, that's got to be the explanation!
So, just like the wooden Egyptian bird, they created a scaled up copy and subjected it to a wind tunnel, and discovered that it had aerodynamic properties. They then went further, and actually created a model which they turned into a working remote controlled airplane:
Or maybe this was an alien fish! Yes, that's got to be the explanation!
So, just like the wooden Egyptian bird, they created a scaled up copy and subjected it to a wind tunnel, and discovered that it had aerodynamic properties. They then went further, and actually created a model which they turned into a working remote controlled airplane:
Left: Working Model Airplane - Right: Experimental Wind Tunnel Model
Scroll up to that first image of what they're calling the "Golden Flyer", and then scroll back down and look at this model that they made. Now look at this quote by Tsoukalos:
Sure, they didn't add an inch or remove an inch.... except that they shaved off those strange frills on the edge of the wings, they would have probably messed with the aerodynamics. And they also reshaped the wings to make their shape more aerodynamically tapered instead of just flat. And they smoothed out the bulge in the middle of the "fuselage" to make it more svelte. And they seriously toned down the decorative bumps and such for the sake of aerodynamics...
And, of course, they added a propeller, engine, and landing gear.... usually, when you have a model airplane, they include the landing gear and propellers. If this were a model airplane, the fact that they're missing would be a really puzzling anomaly.
But the point that they're trying to make here is that their airplane actually flies. And, lo and behold, it actually does:
| They did not add an inch or remove an inch, they just essentially blew the thing into a larger size. |
Sure, they didn't add an inch or remove an inch.... except that they shaved off those strange frills on the edge of the wings, they would have probably messed with the aerodynamics. And they also reshaped the wings to make their shape more aerodynamically tapered instead of just flat. And they smoothed out the bulge in the middle of the "fuselage" to make it more svelte. And they seriously toned down the decorative bumps and such for the sake of aerodynamics...
And, of course, they added a propeller, engine, and landing gear.... usually, when you have a model airplane, they include the landing gear and propellers. If this were a model airplane, the fact that they're missing would be a really puzzling anomaly.
But the point that they're trying to make here is that their airplane actually flies. And, lo and behold, it actually does:
So, now I'm curious - I thought the claim was that this was an alien fighter jet. Are we now claiming that this instead was an alien propeller plane??
I assume the reason that they switched and decided that this wasn't a fighter jet after all is because their model seems to envision the jet nozzle pointing directly at the airplane's tail fin. That would be a rather serious design flaw right there, wouldn't it?
So what we've got here now is a claim that the aliens came down in propeller planes to greet the ancient Columbians.
Let me bring up a quote from the beginning of the episode:
So far we've got catapult propelled wooden gliders and golden propeller planes.... nothing exactly beyond our technology yet. But I'm looking forward to the rest of the episode.
Anyway, it's here that Tsoukalos makes the most mind numbingly asinine statement of the episode so far:
That's right ladies and gentlemen, we have two objects that look absolutely nothing like each other, are made from two different kinds of material, and which even under the remarkably silly interpretations given here represent two different types of objects.... what more coincidence do you need?
And then we're told that we have ancient documents showing flight patterns and aircraft specs:
I assume the reason that they switched and decided that this wasn't a fighter jet after all is because their model seems to envision the jet nozzle pointing directly at the airplane's tail fin. That would be a rather serious design flaw right there, wouldn't it?
So what we've got here now is a claim that the aliens came down in propeller planes to greet the ancient Columbians.
Let me bring up a quote from the beginning of the episode:
| Could ancient man have posessed knowledge far beyond that of our own century? And if so, where did it come from? |
So far we've got catapult propelled wooden gliders and golden propeller planes.... nothing exactly beyond our technology yet. But I'm looking forward to the rest of the episode.
Anyway, it's here that Tsoukalos makes the most mind numbingly asinine statement of the episode so far:
| So we have two examples, from opposite sides of the planet, and both examples are aerodynamically sound, and they fly. So to suggest that all of this is coincidence... I mean, after a while, even coincidence no longer makes sense. |
That's right ladies and gentlemen, we have two objects that look absolutely nothing like each other, are made from two different kinds of material, and which even under the remarkably silly interpretations given here represent two different types of objects.... what more coincidence do you need?
And then we're told that we have ancient documents showing flight patterns and aircraft specs:
They don't go into any detail, and without knowing anything more about these documents, I can't really say anything about them. They don't look very mysterious or like evidence of any sort of flight to me. But what does a dumbass like me know, right?
But the next part is great, because we're told that there are also documents showing ancient air battles "in great detail". Want to see a detailed air battle according to this show? Okay, here you go:
But the next part is great, because we're told that there are also documents showing ancient air battles "in great detail". Want to see a detailed air battle according to this show? Okay, here you go:
Well, I'm certainly sorry that I ever had any doubts now! You can clearly see the modern fighter jets engaged in battle here! This is just the most amazing proof yet!
This is all just really, really silly. I'm frankly disappointed in the History Channel for putting such programming on the air. It only takes the slightest amount of critical thinking to see that these guys are drawing conclusions that aren't warranted by their evidence.
But at least it's great material for my blog. I may just keep returning to it until I've gone through all the claims in the episode.
But a lot of people take this stuff seriously, and don't have the knowledge necessary to analyze these claims critically. I say it a lot, but we really do need to make an effort to teach our children critical thinking at the public school level. I would love to see a better informed public that is more resistant to these kinds of delusions.
This is all just really, really silly. I'm frankly disappointed in the History Channel for putting such programming on the air. It only takes the slightest amount of critical thinking to see that these guys are drawing conclusions that aren't warranted by their evidence.
But at least it's great material for my blog. I may just keep returning to it until I've gone through all the claims in the episode.
But a lot of people take this stuff seriously, and don't have the knowledge necessary to analyze these claims critically. I say it a lot, but we really do need to make an effort to teach our children critical thinking at the public school level. I would love to see a better informed public that is more resistant to these kinds of delusions.
