Medieval Flying Machines

[wraggy]

I read somewhere where Tim O'Neill mentioned that during the medieval period working flying machines had been invented (unless my memory has failed me again).

I am currently reading Lindberg's The Beginning of Western Science 2nd ed and I am near finishing it, but I have not come across any mention of flying machines. Can anyone help with references to reputable scholars on this topic?

[sandwiches]

Tim O'Neill's claim will never get off the ground.

[timoneill]

I was referring to Ailmer of Malmesbury's brief but successful glider flight in the late Eleventh Century. Google will give you most of what you need to know, but the best scholarly work on the subject is Lynn White, "Eilmer of Malmesbury: An Eleventh Century Aviator" (UCLA Press, 1978)

[merkavah12]

Nov 1, 2011 23:06:57 GMT sandwiches said:

Tim O'Neill's claim will never get off the ground.

[sandwiches]

Ailmer of Malmesbury's brief but successful glider flight

I guess "success" is relative:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eilmer_of_Malmesbury

But agitated by the violence of the wind and the swirling of air, as well as by the awareness of his rash attempt, he fell, broke both his legs and was lame ever after. He used to relate as the cause of his failure, his forgetting to provide himself a tail

Interesting that he is rumoured to have seen Hayley's comet twice (though this is disputed as the periodicity of comets was supposedly unknown at the time) or perhaps it is just disputed that he could have realised it was the same comet?

Also there appears to be a similar story about a Muslim in Cordoba a century or two earlier (including the detail about no tail).

Also that the story was recorded by William of Malmesbury in about 1125, who would not have known Ailmer but would have known those who knew him (rather like with some of the Gospel writers and St Paul i.e. they may not have known Jesus but they knew people who did).

There is an article on him by White, Lynn (1961). "Eilmer of Malmesbury, an Eleventh Century Aviator: A Case Study of Technological Innovation, Its Context and Tradition". Technology and Culture (Technology and Culture, Vol. 2, No. 2) 2 (2): 97–111. doi:10.2307/3101411. JSTOR 3101411

According to Wiki:

Lynn Townsend White, Jr. (April 29, 1907 – March 30, 1987) was a professor of medieval history at Princeton, Stanford and, for many years, University of California, Los Angeles. He was president of Mills College, Oakland from 1943 to 1958.

White's main area of research and inquiry was the role of technological invention in the Middle Ages. He believed that the Middle Ages were a decisive period in the genesis of Western technological supremacy, and that the "activist character" of medieval Western Christianity provided the "psychic foundations" of technological inventiveness

Goodness me, they will be telling us next that medieval world laid the foundations of modern science.

[timoneill]

Nov 2, 2011 22:20:25 GMT sandwiches said:

Ailmer of Malmesbury's brief but successful glider flight

I guess "success" is relative.

When you're the first guy to attempt hurling yourself off a church roof with an experimental glider on your back, "success" = "gliding" + "not actually dying".