The birth of aviation and Britain’s first attempt at human-powered flight
Technological innovation and risk-taking thrived in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, long before it became the home of Dyson. This is the story of one 11th century monk who tried to fly and who irrevocably tied this part of England with the spirit of invention.
Anglo-Saxon England led the world in science and technology, with Wiltshire as the epicentre of this innovation.
One example is the world’s first giant pipe organ which was installed in Winchester cathedral in 950AD. The Bishop of Winchester, Aelfeg, made it so large that it required 400 pipes, 26 bellows and 70 men to operate it. It was the most complex machine of its time.
Another lesser known, and on this occasion unsuccessful, feat of engineering took place in Malmesbury in 1010AD which forever tied the area to a spirit of experimentation and attempting the impossible.
William of Malmesbury was a respected historian and monk, writing in the 12th century AD. In his De gestis regum Anglorum, William describes the arrival of Halley’s comet. It was believed that the comet was an omen of the Norman invasion in 1066. Describing the reaction to the event, William writes:
“A comet, a star foretelling, they say, change in kingdoms, appeared trailing its long and fiery tail across the sky. Wherefore a certain monk of our monastery, Eilmer by name, bowed down with terror at the sight of the brilliant star, sagely cried ‘Thou art come! A cause of grief to many a mother art thou come; I have seen thee before but now I behold much more terrible, threatening to hurl destruction on this land.
“He was a man learned for those times, of ripe old age, and in his early youth had hazarded a deed of remarkable boldness. He had by some means, I scarcely know what, fastened wings to his hands and feet so that, mistaking fable for truth, he might fly like Daedalus, and, collecting the breeze on. The summit of a tower, he flew for more than the distance of a furlong. But, agitated by the violence of the wind and the swirling of air, as well as by awareness of his rashness, he fell, broke his legs, and was lame ever after. He himself used to say that the cause of his failure was his forgetting to put a tail on the back part.” This was the first recorded attempt at human-powered flight in Britain.
A historian’s study claims that “Ailmer flew with rigid wings of considerable size, since they were attached to both his arms and legs. Probably they were intended to flap like those of a bird, but were hinged in such a way that they would not fold upward but would soar like a glider”.
“To invent an airplane is nothing. To build one is something. To fly is everything.” — Otto Lilienthal
Today, a stained-glass window in Malmesbury Abbey commemorates his ‘flight’. While Eilmer failed, his attempt taught future aviators about problems which affect aircraft such as drag, lift, and thrust.
It took until the 1880s for mankind to really fly. In 1891, a Prussian inventor named Otto Lilienthal, built his first wicker and cotton ‘Derwitzer’ glider. He made over 2,000 flights between 1891 and 1896. Like Eilmer, Lilienthal flew by throwing himself from the top of a tall tower.
Wilbur and Orville Wright said Lilienthal inspired their own heavier-than-air flight. Wilbur said that there had been many “feeble attempts to glide” spanning back hundreds of years, but “their failures were so complete that nothing of value resulted”. Both Lilienthal and the Wright brothers forgot to add tails to the backs of their machines too.
This article was originally published in Dyson on: magazine. To read more visit on.dyson.co.uk
