The Sumerians, the oldest culture known to man had Annunaki Gods with wings, 4000 year old Indian Vedas describe flying machines called vimanas, Christianity has it’s flying chariots, angels and demons with wings, Hinduism and Buddhism have a winged god called Garuda and even in Scandinavia we have found birdman figures from bronze-age. In this article I have gathered some of those stories to honor the legends and the pioneers who dared to try something that many thought impossible, to construct a timeline to better understand the history of unpowered human flight and perhaps even an attempt to reconstruct some of the ideas to understand, "why"?īeing able to fly is an eon old archetype of human consciousness. Perhaps longing to fly was an expression and creation of pure curiosity and joy, a forgotten memory in our DNA? Whatever the motivation the legends of brave men and women who dedicated their lives and reputation to be able to fly live on in forgotten history books and verbal stories among the initiated. A curious mind always asks a question: "Why"? Old myths talk about gods who had wings and who were able to fly and rise above earthly matters, for Daedalus it was a way to escape earthly prison and to some, it was practical means to be able to move across the land and water more easily. Flying seems unnatural to man since we have no wings and we all know how much falling down hurts but nevertheless it didn't stop us try. Throughout the ages man has been dreaming of pure flight, to be able take off and fly free like a bird. The world of aviation is full of so many amazing stories and people that we could fill a library! But this will do for now and I hope that you, dear reader, will get a bit broader view of what our sport is all about and where it came from. I don’t claim by any means that this is the full story and I must apologize in advance for possible data mistakes this kind of information is prone to, and for leaving out many so many great stories and people. I have written this article to bring some light towards the history of wingsuits for the people who are interested about the subject. Some countries even had laws against wingsuit flying and many Drop Zones around the world had their own private bans against flying men. Almost no one had ever seen a real wingsuit and there was almost nobody alive who had survived the experience. In 1999, almost seventeen years ago, wingsuits were non-existent for the public and their reputation was made of a mixture of apocalypse and horror. I am saying “theirs”, not to divide us but to make a point that we get most of the press from outside our sport and that’s something worth to mention, especially if you know the history. We have hundreds of millions YouTube hits, we soar in Hollywood movies, we have acted and inspired some of the coolest advertisements in TV and they write about us and our flights every day to their newspapers and magazines. Whenever you turn on your TV, sign up at YouTube channel, go to movies or read your favorite magazine, today you’ll find wingsuits and videos of us flying everywhere. WINGSUIT (Wingsuit flying (or wingsuiting) is the sport of flying through the air using a wingsuit, which adds surface area to the human body to enable a significant increase in lift.) - Wikipedia BIRDMEN
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