Abbas Ibn Firnas, The First Man Who Flew and Told it
Throughout human history there have been memorable people whose contribution to science can be considered exceptional. We know many of them, specifically in the context of aeronautics, but there are other names that, however, have passed more discreetly into history even though their contribution has certainly been notable.
Such is the case of a scientist, historian, poet, inventor and, of course, aeronautical pioneer, such as Abbas Ibn Firnas. Many are surprised to learn that this man was the first capable of flying with a device heavier than air, staying in flight for around ten minutes. And he did it, moreover, more than a thousand years before the Wright brothers, specifically in the year 875. But who was Abbas Ibn Firnas?
His birth name was Abu al-Qāsim Abbās ibn Firnās and he came into the world in the year 810 around the city of Ronda (Málaga, Spain). Relatively little is known about his childhood, except that he acquired an extensive culture and began to excel in various disciplines, which led him inexorably to what at that time was the richest and most influential city in Al-Andalus, Córdoba. There he stood out as a scientist, inventor, poet, philosopher, alchemist, musician and astrologer to such an extent that he received the nickname Hakim Al Andalus (the wise man of Al Andalus).
Once in Córdoba he extensively developed the facets of knowledge he contributed significantly to the advancement of sciences and arts in the courts of the emirs al-Hakam (796-822), Abd al-Rahman II (822-852) and Muhammad I (852-886).
In the scientific field, he was the first to use in the entire Iberian Peninsula, and probably in Europe, the astronomical tables of Sinhind, of Hindu origin, which would later prove basic in the development of European science and would be studied in medieval universities such as Quadrivium subject (where music, arithmetic, geometry and astronomy were integrated).
He introduced the technique of carving rock crystal to the Western world and even developed alchemical procedures to create crystals from different minerals.
He built a time clock for the Emir of Córdoba (in Arabic Al-Maqata-Maqata), a complex clock that uses water as energy, to which a series of valves close or open the passage and serves to tell the hours at any time of the day. or at night, something unusual in his time.
He also developed Europe's first armillary sphere (or spherical astrolabe), used to make approximate astronomical calculations and observations, orienting the circles of the instrument according to the plane of the celestial circles.
As an example of his advanced astronomical knowledge, he built a planetarium, mechanically articulated, that represented the celestial vault in his residence in Córdoba. He even set it with sound and visual effects that simulated the different meteors: storm, lightning and thunder.
In the context of aeronautics, Abbas Ibn Firnás is an extraordinary reference as a precursor of the parachute and for being the first person who designed, built and successfully tested devices that could remain in the air. He made it six hundred years before Leonardo da Vinci developed his designs for flying machines and more than a thousand years before the Wright brothers made his famous flight.
His first aeronautical milestone was in the year 852, in which he jumped into the void from the minaret of the Mosque of Córdoba using a canvas as an innovative parachute. Something like this had never been attempted. Or, at least, no one could tell it until that date. The result was a relatively quick descent, with a rough landing and several broken bones, but with the firm conviction that it could work. This event is widely considered to be the use of the first parachute in history.
Years later, in 875, he designed a glider made of wood and silk fabric (decorated with feathers from various birds) with which he launched from the Ruzafa hills, near Córdoba. Sure that this device would work, he had summoned hundreds of people along the route. Also present were many members of the court of Muhammad I, emir of the Andalusian caliphate.
The result was a sustained flight taking advantage of the air currents that lasted between two and ten minutes (depending on the chronicles taken as reference). Apparently, the control of the contraption was quite poor and was possibly the cause of the bumpy landing in which both legs were seriously injured. He later attributed the problem to the need to incorporate a tail into the aircraft's design. At 65 years old, a lot for his time, he no longer tried it, but he became the first man in history to fly with a device heavier than air... and he could tell about it.
