What we can learn from mankind’s first (failed) attempts to fly
Humans had taken to the skies long before the Wright Brothers arrived on the scene — albeit, often with disastrous outcomes. This is the story of an 11th century monk’s daring (and failed) attempt to be the first man to fly.
Published in
6 min readJul 2, 2018
Man’s first serious attempts at flight are, for the most part, consigned fictional accounts recorded in myths and legends.
The most obvious of which is Daedalus’ escape from the Labyrinth in Crete and his son, Icarus, who fell to his death after flying too close to the sun which melted the wax holding his feather wings together.
You may think that this myth, which was designed to persuade the more adventurous members of our species to keep their feet on the floor, would have kept our ambitions grounded. However, this is simply not the case. Tales spanning back as far as 100 AD tell stories — often involving men — trying to fly using the latest technology of their day.
