First Glider in History

by Meam Wye on July 21, 2009

The first person to make an attempt at controlled flying was Cordoban muslim `Abbas ibn Firnas (Latin name: Armen Firman), also known as Abbas Qasim Ibn Firnas, in the 9th Century. He constructed a flying machine by placing feathers on a wooden frame - the first of its kind capable of carrying a human into the air.

In 875, at the age of 65 Ibn Firnas made his famous attempt at flight. He launched from the Mount of the Bride (Jabal al-'Arus) in the Rusafa Area, near Córdoba, Spain infront of a large crowd of people gathered to witness his flight. Moments before he flew he stated:

"Presently, I shall take leave of you. By guiding these wings up and down, I should ascend like the birds. If all goes well, after soaring for a time I should be able to return safely to your side."

People watched from a nearby mountain as he flew to a significant height and managed to remain in the air for a considerable time, but then the hand glider plummeted to the ground causing him to injure his back. After failing to land successfully, Ibn Firnas claimed that he had not noticed how birds use their tails to land and that he had forgotten the tail on his flying apparatus. The back injury prevented Ibn Firnas from trying again. He died seven years later.

An witness, the poet Mu'min Ibn Said (d. 886), reported:

"He flew faster than the phoenix in his flight when he dressed his body in the feathers of a vulture."

According to another eye witness:

"He flew a considerable distance as if he had been a bird but in alighting again on the place where he started from, his back was very much hurt. For, not knowing that birds when they alight come down upon their tails, he forgot to provide himself with one."

The crater Ibn Firnas on the Moon is also named in his honor.

In 1260, more than 350 years after Ibn Firnas flight, Roger Bacon who had studied in Cordoba - the homeland of Ibn Firnas, described two possible ways a person may fly.