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Introduction
Flight has been the dream of humankind since they watched in awe
as birds soared effortlessly through the sky. But, according to
accepted history, it wasn't until the 1780s that two Frenchmen
achieved lighter-than-air flight when they were lifted into the air
in a hot air balloon near Paris. Then powered, heavier-than-air
flight became the goal. And although it was theorized that
heavier-than-air flight was possible as early as the 13th century,
and in the 16th century Leonardo da Vinci designed winged aircraft
and a crude kind of helicopter, it wasn't until the Wright brothers
made their first successful flights at Kitty Hawk in 1903 that
powered flight became a reality.
That's the widely accepted history. Some researchers and a few
rogue scientists believe there's evidence to suggest that humans
achieved flight earlier in history - much earlier... so early, they
say, that the knowledge of this technology has been lost and ancient
stories that recount adventures of human flight have been relegated
only to myth.
Is it possible that humans developed the technology to fly in
early civilizations - or in civilizations that are now lost to
history? Let's take a look at what some call the evidence -
intriguing artifacts, carvings, inscriptions and legends - that they
say point to the true record human of flight.
Colombia
Airplane Models
©1996 Lumir G. Janku. All rights
reserved. Reprinted with permission.
This object (shown in sketch) was found in 1898 in a tomb at
Saqquara, Egypt and was later dated as having been created near 200
BCE. As airplanes were unknown in the days when it was found, it was
thrown into a box marked "wooden bird model" and then stored in the
basement of the Cairo museum.
 It was rediscovered by Dr. Khalil Messiha, who
studied models made by ancients. The "discovery" was considered so
important by the Egyptian government that a special committee of
leading scientists was established to study the object.
| As a result of their findings, a special exhibit
was set up in the center hall of the Cairo museum, with the
little model as its centerpiece. It was even labelled as a
model airplane. |
 |
To elucidate the reasons for the decision of the committee,
almost unprecedented in the field of archaeology, let's consider some
aspects of the model. The model has the exact proportions of a very
advanced form of "pusher-glider" that is still having "some bugs
ironed out". This type of glider will stay in the air almost by
itself—even a very small engine will keep it going at low speeds, as
low as 45 to 65 mph., while it can carry an enormous payload. This
ability is dependent on the curious shape of wings and their
proportions. The tipping of wings downward, a reversedihedral
wing as it is called, is the feature behind this capability. A
similar type of curving wings are implemented on the Concorde
airplane, giving the plane a maximum lift without detracting from
its speed.
In that context, it seems rather incredible that someone, more
than 2,000 years ago, for any reason, devised a model of a flying
device with such advanced features, requiring quite extensive
knowledge of aerodynamics. There were no such things as airplanes in
these times, we are told by archeologists and historians. But this
case seems to be an exception, living in the midst of the rather
unimaginative and rigid paradigm of contemporary science. It is also
necessary to point out that Egyptians are known to have nearly
always made scale-models of projects and objects which they planned
to create or build.
Precolombian Airplane Models
Is the concept of an airplane limited to Egypt? That doesn't seem
to be the case. Gold trinkets were found in an area covering Central
America and coastal areas of South America, estimated to belong to a
period between 500 and 800 CE, but since they are made from gold,
accurate dating is impossible and based essentially on stratigraphy
which may be deceptive. However, we can safely say that these gold
objects are more than 1000 years old.
Whatever this object is supposed to
be or represent,
its remarkable resemblance to a modern
aircraft or spacecraft is uncanny.
 As seen from the pictures, the shape of the
sample object is rather ambiguous. The archaeologists labelled these
objects as zoomorphic, meaning, animal shaped objects.
The question is, what animal do they represent? When we compare
these with other objects from the same cultures depicting animals, a
curious facet of the comparison would be obvious: the other objects
are recognizable, rendered usually with a great accuracy and
attention to realistic detail.
There are several types of animals which fly—birds, insects, and
several mammals, such as bats and some gliders, for instance flying
squirrels, oppossums, and then there are some lizards; there are
also some fish which for brief periods glide through the air. There
are water animals which seem to fly through the water, such
as rays, skates and some selachians. But how does the depicted
object compare with these choices? All its features taken into a
consideration, we have no match. Seen from above, the object
obviously has no fish features, but seems to show rather explicitly
mechanistic ones.
 The structures just in front of the tail are
strongly reminiscent of elevons (a combination of ailerons
and elevators) with a slight forward curve, but they are attached to
the fuselage, rather than the wings. In any case, they look more
like airplane parts than like the claspers of a fish. If the two
prominent spirals on the wings are supposed to be a stylized version
of the eyes of a ray, then what are the two globular objects
positioned on the head supposed to represent? To complicate
the identification even more, the spirals on the wings have their
copies positioned on the nose of the object, in the opposite
direction. When the object is viewed in profile, the didsimilarity
to anything from the animal kingdom is even more pronounced. If the
zoomorphic explanation is supposed to hold, then why did the artist
cut the head off almost three quarters from the body? And why
is the nose is practically rectangular and the cut tilted forward,
with eyes positioned at either side, when fish eyes are usually more
near the center of bodyline and far forward on the head?
  What we can make of the semicircular grooves on
the inside of the cut? What is it supposed to be—fishwise?
And what about the scoop, forward and under the cut?
It is a scoop, not just a ridge for drilling a hole through to place
the object on a necklace chain. Then there is another rectangular
feature, positioned further back at the approximate center of
gravity under the fuselage. The wings when viewed from the side are
perfetly horizontal, but when seen from the front, they curve
slightly downward. The elevators, which are right behind the
wings, are positioned on a slightly higher horizontal level and are
square-ended, thus a definite geometric shape. Above them is another
rectangular shape, with a relief which may be reminiscent of
knobs. The tail is equally intriguing. No fish has only a
single, upright and perpendicular flange. But this tail fin has an
exact shape of fins on modern airplanes. There are also some
markings on the tail which are hard to identify, but it does not
seem to be anything related to animals, either.
When all the features are taken into an account, the object does
not look like a representation of any known animal at all, but does
look astonishingly like an airplane. The photos and enlarged outline
of the object has been submitted for an analysis to several people
from the field of aerodynamics. One of them was Arthur Young, a
designer of Bell helicopters and other aircraft. His analysis
confirmed that the object contains many features which would fit the
airplane hypothesis, but there were several ones which would not fit
that scenario. Wings do seem to be in the wrong place—they should be
further forward so that their 1/4-chord
coincides with the center of gravity. The nose is not like anything
on airplanes, as well. So, while the object is suggesting an
airplane, some features would not seem to support this
hypothesis.
 But let's entertain several possibilities. If
we imagine that the separation after the windshield is not a
cockpit and that the pilot and the cargo were located somewhere in
the main fuselage body, then we can envision the nose as
something else. Let's assume that the nose is actually a jet. If the
machine needs to slow down, the jet flow directed against the path
of flight would accomplish just that. But how to redirect the jet
into the opposite direction? If we envision the nose as a movable
part of the plane, turning around the point located where the nose
and fuselage meet, thus pivoting the nose downward to tuck it under
the fuselage, that would enable the desired effect. What's more, it
will re-adjust the center of gravity and the wings would be just in
the right place for a high powered flight. Another problem, though,
will appear and that is the drag which would be created by the back
of the nose now positioned in front. But that can be attributed to
artistic license. That seems to be the case, because several
other similar planes feature the back part of the nose
tilted more forward, so the angle of the back of the nose
when pivoted is more corresponding to aerodynamic principles.
All things considered, the object seems to represent a
convertible type of craft, with two possible configurations—one for
ascent when the nose is facing backwards, and the other for descent
with the nose facing forward. One unsolved item remains—the spirals
on the both wings and the nose. According to Amerindian iconography,
these spirals have discernable meaning—they represent ascending and
descending, depending on whether they are right-oriented or
left-oriented, respectively. As the spirals are not only on wings
but also on the nose, the meaning is fairly obvious—the wings and
the nose (as much) were the features which were directly involved in
ascent and descent.
There are other cultures which mention flying vehicles of some
sort or another. The most known of these sources are Indian epics,
especially the Mahábhárata and other Védic sources as Bhágavata
Purána and Rámáyana. The flying devices were called vimánas
and were extensively discussed in Vaimánika Shástra,
describing multitude of machines with different purposes and
capabilities.
Other source of information about flying machines may be
considered, such as the Bible and some apocryphal works. The book of
Ezekiel seems to be describing the close encounter of a man from a
non-technological culture with a device which to him must have been
miraculous. We have to put ourselves into his shoes to comprehend
his astonishment and the otherworldness of his encounter. The
limited scope of knowledge of the world around him, his primitive
environment, dictated the language and conceptual framework with
which he tried to capture his encounter for fellow tribesmen. For
him it seemed that he encountered The God, with his suite of
angels, because in his simple world, there was no other
interpretation. It is not necessary to reach for an alien
type of scenario to explain the encounter; we can entertain a
possibility that a remnant of an advanced civilization was still
present, in a limited scope, at the time of Ezekiel. But for some,
the encounter bears uncanny similarity to the modern-day encounters
with UFO's. Another source of similar material is the Book of Enoch,
particularly the Slavic version, which contains some parts which the
Greek version is missing. The book not only describes flying in the
air, but also through outer space, including the relativistic
effects mentioned—Enoch spent several days on a spacecraft, but when
he returned to Earth, several centuries had passed by.
There is no shortage of descriptions of flying machines in
ancient sources. If we try to extract the core of myths of different
provenience and remove the embellishments, we discover to our
surprise that flying in ancient times seems to be the rule, not the
exception.
Text and Illustrations ©1996 Lumir G. Janku
Photographs
courtesy of Government of Colombia,
Roy Pinney and Barney
Nashold
Source: The Anti-Gravity Handbook (Lost Science)
by
D. Hatcher Childress
Many researchers into the UFO enigma tend to overlook
a very important fact. While it assumed that most flying saucers are
of alien, or perhaps Governmental Military origin, another possible
origin of UFOs is ancient India and Atlantis.
What we know about ancient Indian flying vehicles comes from
ancient Indian sources; written texts that have come down to us
through the centuries. There is no doubt that most of these texts
are authentic; many are the well known ancient Indian Epics
themselves, and there are literally hundreds of them. Most of them
have not even been translated into English yet from the old
Sanskrit.
The Indian Emperor Ashoka started a "Secret Society of the Nine
Unknown Men": great Indian scientists who were supposed to catalogue
the many sciences. Ashoka kept their work secret because he was
afraid that the advanced science catalogued by these men, culled
from ancient Indian sources, would be used for the evil purpose of
war, which Ashoka was strongly against, having been converted to
Buddhism after defeating a rival army in a bloody battle.
The "Nine Unknown Men" wrote a total of nine books, presumably
one each. Book number was "The Secrets of Gravitation!" This book,
known to historians, but not actually seen by them dealt chiefly
with "gravity control." It is presumably still around somewhere,
kept in a secret library in India, Tibet or elsewhere (perhaps even
in North America somewhere). One can certainly understand Ashoka's
reasoning for wanting to keep such knowledge a secret, assuming it
exists. if the Nazis had such weapons at their disposal during World
War Ii. Ashoka was also aware devastating wars using such advanced
vehicles and other "futuristic weapons" that had destroyed the
ancient Indian "Rama Empire" several thousand years before.
Only a few years ago, the Chinese discovered some Sanskrit
documents in Lhasa, Tibet and sent them to the University of
Chandrigarh to be translated. Dr. Ruth Reyna of the University said
recently that the documents contain directions for building
interstellar spaceships!
Their method of propulsion, she said, was "anti-gravitational"
and was based upon a system analogous to that of "laghima," the
unknown power of the ego existing in man's physiological makeup, "a
centrifugal force strong enough to counteract all gravitational
pull." According to Hindu Yogis, it is this "laghima" which enables
a person to levitate.
Dr. Reyna said that on board these machines, which were called
"Astras" by the text, the ancient Indians could have sent a
detachment of men onto any planet, according to the document, which
is thought to be thousands of years old. The manuscripts were also
said to reveal the secret of "antima"; "the cap of invisibility" and
"garima"; "how to become as heavy as a mountain of lead."
Naturally, Indian scientists did not take the texts very
seriously, but then became more positive about the value of them
when the Chinese announced that they were including certain parts of
the data for study in their space program! This was one of the first
instances of a government admitting to be researching
anti-gravity.
The manuscripts did not say definitely that interplanetary travel
was ever made but did mention, of all things, a planned trip to the
Moon, though it is not clear whether this trip was actually carried
out. However, one of the great Indian epics, the Ramayana, does have
a highly detailed story in it of a trip to the moon in a Vimana (or
"Astra"), and in fact details a battle on the moon with an "Asvin"
(or Atlantean" airship.
This is but a small bit of recent evidence of anti-gravity and
aerospace technology used by Indians. To really understand the
technology, we must go much further back in time.
The so-called "Rama Empire" of Northern India and Pakistan
developed at least fifteen thousand years ago on the Indian
sub-continent and was a nation of many large, sophisticated cities,
many of which are still to be found in the deserts of Pakistan,
northern, and western India. Rama existed, apparently, parallel to
the Atlantean civilization in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, and was ruled
by "enlightened Priest-Kings" who governed the cities, The seven
greatest capital cities of Rama were known in classical Hindu texts
as "The Seven Rishi Cities."
According to ancient Indian texts, the people had flying machines
which were called "Vimanas." The ancient Indian epic describes a
Vimana as a double-deck, circular aircraft with portholes and a
dome, much as we would imagine a flying saucer.
It flew with the "speed of the wind" and gave forth a "melodious
sound." There were at least four different types of Vimanas; some
saucer shaped, others like long cylinders ("cigar shaped airships").
The ancient Indian texts on Vimanas are so numerous, it would take
volumes to relate what they had to say. The ancient Indians, who
manufactured these ships themselves, wrote entire flight manuals on
the control of the various types of Vimanas, many of which are still
in existence, and some have even been translated into English.
The Samara Sutradhara is a scientific treatise dealing with every
possible angle of air travel in a Vimana. There are 230 stanzas
dealing with the construction, take-off, cruising for thousand of
miles, normal and forced landings, and even possible collisions with
birds. In 1875, the Vaimanika Sastra, a fourth century B.C. text
written by Bharadvajy the Wise, using even older texts as his
source, was rediscovered in a temple in India. It dealt with the
operation of Vimanas and included information on the steering,
precautions for long flights, protection of the airships from storms
and lightening and how to switch the drive to "solar energy" from a
free energy source which sounds like "anti-gravity."
The Vaimanika Sastra (or Vymaanika-Shaastra) has eight chapters
with diagrams, describing three types of aircraft, including
apparatuses that could neither catch on fire nor break. It also
mentions 31 essential parts of these vehicles and 16 materials from
which they are constructed, which absorb light and heat; for which
reason they were considered suitable for the construction of
Vimanas. This document has been translated into English and is
available by writing the publisher: VYMAANIDASHAASTRA AERONAUTICS by
Maharishi Bharadwaaja, translated into English and edited, printed
and published by Mr. G. R. Josyer, Mysore, India, 1979 (sorry, no
street address). Mr. Josyer is the director of the International
Academy of Sanskrit Investigation located in Mysore.
Click on the picture to
visit A Tribute to Hinduism - Vimanas
There seems to be no doubt that Vimanas were powered by some sort
of "anti-gravity." Vimanas took off vertically, and were capable of
hovering in the sky, like a modern helicopter or dirigible.
Bharadvajy the Wise refers to no less than 70 authorities and 10
experts of air travel in antiquity. These sources are now lost.
Vimanas were kept in a Vimana Griha, a kind of hanger, and were
sometimes said to be propelled by a yellowish-white liquid, and
sometimes by some sort of mercury compound, though writers seem
confused in this matter. It is most likely that the later writers on
Vimanas, wrote as observers and from earlier texts, and were
understandably confused on the principle of their propulsion. The
"yellowish-white liquid" sounds suspiciously like gasoline, and
perhaps Vimanas had a number of different propulsion sources,
including combustion engines and even "pulse-jet" engines. It is
interesting to note, that the Nazis developed the first practical
pulse-jet engines for their V-8 rocket "buzz bombs." Hitler and the
Nazi staff were exceptionally interested in ancient India and Tibet
and sent expeditions to both these places yearly, starting in the
30's, in order to gather esoteric evidence that they did so, and
perhaps it was from these people that the Nazis gained some of their
scientific information!
According to the Dronaparva, part of the Mahabarata, and the
Ramayana, one Vimana described was shaped like a sphere and born
along at great speed on a mighty wind generated by mercury. It moved
like a UFO, going up, down, backwards and forewards as the pilot
desired. In another Indian source, the Samar, Vimanas were "iron
machines, well-knit and smooth, with a charge of mercury that shot
out of the back in the form of a roaring flame." Another work called
the Samaranganasutradhara describes how the vehicles were
constructed. It is possible that mercury did have something to do
with the propulsion, or more possibly, with the guidance system.
Curiously, Soviet scientists have discovered what they call "age-old
instruments used in navigating cosmic vehicles" in caves in
Turkestan and the Gobi Desert. The "devices" are hemispherical
objects of glass or porcelain, ending in a cone with a drop of
mercury inside.
It is evident that ancient Indians flew around in these vehicles,
all over Asia, to Atlantis presumably; and even, apparently, to
South America. Writing found at Mohenjodaro in Pakistan (presumed to
be one of the "Seven Rishi Cities of the Rama Empire") and still
undeciphered, has also been found in one other place in the world:
Easter Island! Writing on Easter Island, called Rongo-Rongo writing,
is also undeciphered, and is uncannily similar to the Mohenjodaro
script. Was Easter Island an air base for the Rama Empire's Vimana
route? (At the Mohenjo-Daro Vimana-drome, as the passenger walks
down the concourse, he hears the sweet, melodic sound of the
announcer over the loudspeaker,
"Rama Airways flight number seven for Bali, Easter Island, Nazca,
and Atlantis is now ready for boarding. Passengers please proceed to
gate number..") in Tibet, no small distance, and speaks of the
"fiery chariot" thusly: "Bhima flew along in his car, resplendent as
the sun and loud as thunder... The flying chariot shone like a flame
in the night sky of summer ... it swept by like a comet... It was as
if two suns were shining. Then the chariot rose up and all the
heaven brightened."
In the Mahavira of Bhavabhuti, a Jain text of the eighth century
culled from older texts and traditions, we read:
"An aerial chariot, the Pushpaka, conveys many people to the
capital of Ayodhya. The sky is full of stupendous flying-machines,
dark as night, but picked out by lights with a yellowish
glare"
The Vedas, ancient Hindu poems, thought to be the oldest of all
the Indian texts, describe Vimanas of various shapes and sizes: the
"ahnihotra-vimana" with two engines, the "elephant-vimana" with more
engines, and other types named after the kingfisher, ibis and other
animals.
Unfortunately, Vimanas, like most scientific discoveries, were
ultimately used for war. Atlanteans used their flying machines,
"Vailixi," a similar type of aircraft, to literally try and
subjugate the world, it would seem, if Indian texts are to be
believed. The Atlanteans, known as "Asvins" in the Indian writings,
were apparently even more advanced technologically than the Indians,
and certainly of a more war-like temperment. Although no ancient
texts on Atlantean Vailixi are known to exist, some information has
come down through esoteric, "occult" sources which describe their
flying machines. Similar, if not identical to Vimanas, Vailixi were
generally "cigar shaped" and had the capability of maneuvering
underwater as well as in the atmosphere or even outer space. Other
vehicles, like Vimanas, were saucer shaped, and could apparently
also be submerged.
According to Eklal Kueshana, author of "The Ultimate Frontier,"
in an article he wrote in 1966, Vailixi were first developed in
Atlantis 20,000 years ago, and the most common ones are
"saucer-shaped of generally trapezoidal cross-section with three
hemispherical engine pods on the underside." "They use a mechanical
antigravity device driven by engines developing approximately 80,000
horse power."
The Ramayana, Mahabarata and other texts speak of the hideous war
that took place, some ten or twelve thousand years ago between
Atlantis and Rama using weapons of destruction that could not be
imagined by readers until the second half of this century.
The ancient Mahabharata, one of the sources on Vimanas, goes on
to tell the awesome destructiveness of the war:
"...(the weapon was) a single projectile
charged with
all the power of the Universe.
An incandescent column of
smoke and flame
As bright as the thousand suns rose in all
its splendor...
An iron thunderbolt,
A gigantic messenger of
death,
Which reduced to ashes
The entire race of the
Vrishnis
And the Andhakas.
... the corpses were so burned
As to be
unrecognizable.
The hair and nails fell out;
Pottery broke
without apparent cause,
And the birds turned white.
... After a few hours
All foodstuffs were
infected...
... to escape from this fire
The soldiers threw
themselves in streams
To wash themselves and their
equipment..."
It would seem that the Mahabharata is describing an atomic war!
References like this one are not isolated; but battles, using a
fantastic array of weapons and aerial vehicles are common in all the
epic Indian books. One even describes a Vimana-Vailix battle on the
Moon! The above section very accurately describes what an atomic
explosion would look like and the effects of the radioactivity on
the population. Jumping into water is the only respite.
When the Rishi City of Mohenjodaro was excavated by archeologists
in the last century, they found skeletons just lying in the streets,
some of them holding hands, as if some great doom had suddenly
overtaken them. These skeletons are among the most radioactive ever
found, on a par with those found at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Ancient
cities whose brick and stone walls have literally been vitrified,
that is-fused together, can be found in India, Ireland, Scotland,
France, Turkey and other places. There is no logical explanation for
the vitrification of stone forts and cities, except from an atomic
blast. Furthermore, at Mohenjo-Daro, a well planned city laid on a
grid, with a plumbing system superior to those used in Pakistan and
India today, the streets were littered with "black lumps of glass."
These globs of glass were discovered to be clay pots that had melted
under intense heat!
With the cataclysmic sinking of Atlantis and the wiping out of
Rama with atomic weapons, the world collapsed into a "stone age" of
sorts, and modern history picks up a few thousand years later. Yet,
it would seem that not all the Vimanas and Vailixi of Rama and
Atlantis were gone. Built to last for thousands of of years, many of
them would still be in use, as evidenced by Ashoka's "Nine Unknown
Men" and the Lhasa manuscript.
That secret societies or "Brotherhoods" of exceptional,
"enlightened" human beings would have preserved these inventions and
the knowledge of science, history, etc., does not seem surprising.
Many well known historical personages including Jesus, Buddha, Lao
Tzu, Confucius, Krishna, Zoroaster, Mahavira, Quetzalcoatl,
Akhenaton, Moses, and more recent inventors and of course many other
people who will probably remain anonymous, were probably members of
such a secret organization.
It is interesting to note that when Alexander the Great invaded
India more than two thousand years ago, his historians chronicled
that at one point they were attacked by "flying, fiery shields" that
dove at his army and frightened the cavalry. These "flying saucers"
did not use any atomic bombs or beam weapons on Alexander's army
however, perhaps out of benevolence, and Alexander went on to
conquer India.
It has been suggested by many writers that these "Brotherhoods"
keep some of their Vimanas and Vailixi in secret caverns in Tibet or
some other place is Central Asia, and the Lop Nor Desert in western
China is known to be the center of a great UFO mystery. Perhaps it
is here that many of the airships are still kept, in underground
bases much as the Americans, British and Soviets have built around
the world in the past few decades.
Still, not all UFO activity can be accounted for by old Vimanas
making trips to the Moon for some reason. Undoubtedly, some are from
the Military Governments of the world, and possibly even from other
planets. Of course, many UFO sightings are "swamp, gas, clouds,
hoaxes, and hallucinations, while there is considerable evidence
that many UFO sightings, especially "kidnappings" and the like, are
the result of what is generally called "telepathic hypnosis." One
common thread that often runs between "Alien kidnappings," "sex with
aliens," and other "close encounters of a third kind" is a buzzing
in the ears just before the encounter. According to many well
informed people, this is a sure sign of telepathic hypnosis."
Source: The Anti-Gravity Handbook (Lost Science)
by
D. Hatcher Childress
SOURCE: John Burrows
Sanskrit texts are filled with references to gods who fought
battles in the sky using Vimanas equipped with weapons as deadly as
any we can deploy in these more enlightened times. For example,
there is a passage in the Ramayana which reads:
"The Puspaka car that resembles the Sun and belongs to my brother
was brought by the powerful Ravan; that aerial and excellent car
going everywhere at will .... that car resembling a bright cloud in
the sky."
".. and the King [Rama] got in, and the excellent car at the
command of the Raghira, rose up into the higher atmosphere."
In the Mahabharatra, an ancient Indian poem of enormous length,
we learn that an individual named Asura Maya had a Vimana measuring
twelve cubits in circumference, with four strong wheels. The poem is
a veritable gold mine of information relating to conflicts between
gods who settled their differences apparently using weapons as
lethal as the ones we are capable of deploying. Apart from 'blazing
missiles', the poem records the use of other deadly weapons.
'Indra's Dart' operated via a circular 'reflector'. When switched
on, it produced a 'shaft of light' which, when focused on any
target, immediately 'consumed it with its power'. In one particular
exchange, the hero, Krishna, is pursuing his enemy, Salva, in the
sky, when Salva's Vimana, the Saubha is made invisible in some way.
Undeterred, Krishna immediately fires off a special weapon: 'I
quickly laid on an arrow, which killed by seeking out sound'. Many
other terrible weapons are described, quite matter of factly, in the
Mahabharata, but the most fearsome of all is the one used against
the Vrishis. The narrative records:
"Gurkha flying in his swift and powerful Vimana hurled against
the three cities of the Vrishis and Andhakas a single projectile
charged with all the power of the Universe. An incandescent column
of smoke and fire, as brilliant as ten thousands suns, rose in all
its splendour. It was the unknown weapon, the Iron Thunderbolt, a
gigantic messaenger of death which reduced to ashes the entire race
of the Vrishnis and Andhakas."
It is important to note, that these kinds of records are not
isolated. They can be cross-correlated with similiar reports in
other ancient civilizations. The after-affects of this Iron
Thunderbolt have an ominously recognizable ring. Apparently, those
killed by it were so burnt that their corpses were unidentifiable.
The survivors fared little etter, as it caused their hair and nails
to fall out.
Perhaps the most disturbing and challenging, information about
these allegedly mythical Vimanas in the ancient records is that
there are some matter-of-fact records, describing how to build one.
In their way, the instructions are quite precise.
In the Sanskrit Samarangana Sutradhara, it is written:
"Strong and durable must the body of the Vimana be made, like a
great flying bird of light material. Inside one must put the mercury
engine with its iron heating apparatus underneath. By means of the
power latent in the mecrcury which sets the driving whirlwind in
motion, a man sitting inside may travel a great distance in the sky.
The movements of the Vimana are such that it can vertically ascend,
vertically descend, move slanting forwards and backwards. With the
help of the machines human beings can fly in the air and heavenly
beings can come down to earth."
The Hakatha (Laws of the Babylonians) states quite unambiguously:
"The privilege of operating a flying machine is great. The knowledge
of flight is among the most ancient of our inheritances. A gift from
'those from upon high'. We received it from them as a means of
saving many lives."
More fantastic still is the information given in the ancient
Chaldean work, The Sifrala, which contains over one hundred pages of
technical details on building a flying machine. It contains words
which translate as graphite rod, copper coils, crystal indicator,
vibrating spheres, stable angles, etc.
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