You may have heard about the Wright brothers inventing the first motorized flying plane. But, did you know that centuries earlier, a Muslim inventor built wings of silk, wood, and feathers?
Abbas Ibn Firnas is descended from the Berber tribe, who conquered Spain under the leadership of Tariq Bin Ziyad. He was a polymath inventor, astronomer, physician, chemist, and engineer.
He constructed a device that indicated the movement of the planets and stars in the Universe. Ibn Firnas remains the first aviator to fly with a heavier-than-air machine.
In the 870s, Ibn Firnas jumped off a cliff from Yemen’s Jabal Al-Arus. He glided in the air, staying in flight for at least ten minutes. Unfortunately, he ended up crash landing because he had neglected the mechanics of landing.
Over the next twelve years of his life, Ibn Firnas studied bird behavior to learn the slow landing. Therefore, Firnas is the man responsible for the theory that went on to create the ornithopter, an aircraft that mimics birds and flies by flapping its wings. His flying machine diagrams went on to form the basis of aviation engineering.
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