Archytas construct a flying machine at 425 B.C. He was a mathematician from Taranto that managed to make a little mechanical pigeon fly for a while. He constructed a very low weight pigeon and under it he used a balloon filled with air. As the air was blowing out of a little hole the pigeon could fly for almost 200 metres!
Can you imagine what he used instead of a rubber balloon? The cyst of a pig!
Another very mysterious text that is said to have been written by him is a description of a travel around the earth in an airtight closed ball! What kind of unidentified flying object was that?! What did Archytas know and we haven't managed to find yet?
As far as I know, some descriptions like this can be found also in some very old religious manuscripts of India! These are describing more specifically some construction details as well!
Has anybody got more information?
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