Forgotten Ages Research

Soaring Above the Egyptian Deserts—The Continued Flight of the Saqqara Glider

Product ID: OPA7

Report Topics:

• The discovery of the Saqqara glider in a Ptolemaic tomb at Saqqara, at the turn of the last century
• Dr. Khalil Messiha’s “re-discovery” of the ancient artifact in the Cairo Museum, and its initial aerodynamic analysis
• Successful test flights of a number of replicas of the Saqqara craft made by modern model plane enthusiasts
• The author’s opportunity, with Dr. Messiha, to take the ancient glider out of its museum display case and carefully examine it up close—my personal observations
• Answering arguments made by skeptics that the ancient artifact is only a “bird figurine,” a “weather-vane” or a “toy”

Full Report:

In 1891 the burial remains of a Ptolemaic minor official named Pa-di-Imen (Amun) was unearthed at Saqqara, Egypt. Though the remains dated to circa 200 B.C.E., they were part of the general excavation findings associated with the tomb of Queen Khuit, one of the wives of Pharaoh Teti of the Sixth Dynasty, from two millennia earler. As was the common practice during the later Ptolemaic period, many of the tombs of former royal dignitaries were re-used, which was the reason Pa-di-Imen‘s burial objects were part of the Old Kingdom artifacts brought to light. The excavation had been sponsored by French archaeologist Victor Loret, who was then Director of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, and for several years he held onto all the remains as part of the EAS’s collection.

By 1898 however the discovered artifacts made their way to the Cairo Museum. Among the Ptolemaic pieces was a curious winged object that was catalogued as Special Register No. 6347 (also designated with the number 33109). Within the context of today’s technological mindset, we can immediately see just by looking at it that it bears an uncanny resemblance to a glider craft of some type. But because at the time of its discovery the birth of modern aviation was still several years away—the Wright brothers’ first flight did not take place until 1903—the strange object was shelved away among other miscellaneous items to gather dust, unrecognized for what it really was.

In 1969, over seventy years later, Dr. Dowoud Kahlil Messiha—an Egyptologist, medical doctor and Professor of Anatomy for the Medical Artists at Helwan University—was examining a particular Museum display in Room No. 22, labeled “bird figurines.” The other contents of the display were clearly bird sculptures, but the Saqqara artifact was clearly different. It possessed characteristics not found on birds, yet which are part of modern aircraft design. Dr. Messiha, who was a model plane enthusiast and member of the Egyptian Aeromodelers Club, immediately recognized the aircraft features and persuaded the Under Secretary of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture to form a committee in order to investigate the model. In the meetings of the committee in late 1970 and early 1971, the participating historians and aviation experts were so impressed with their findings that it was recommended that the model be placed in the Central Hall of the Cairo Museum as a temporary main exhibit. Afterwards it was returned, and today it is still housed in Room No. 22, on the second floor.

The small craft is made of very light sycamore wood and weighs 39.12 grams, or 0.5 oz. The only markings on it are faint eyes painted on the nose and two red lines under the wings, in a similar fashion that decorations appear on modern aircraft. The eye dots are actually the ends of a very small obsidian bar which is fitted through the head, and gives the craft an important balancing weight.

The model’s wings are straight and aerodynamically shaped, with a span of 18.3 centimeters, or about 7.2 inches. Its pointed nose is 3.2 centimeters (1.5 inches) long. The body of the craft totals 14.2 centimeters (5.6 inches), tapered, terminating in a vertical tail fin. Dr. Messiha found evidence for a separated tail-wing piece that very likely attached to the vertical tail precisely like the back tail on a modern plane. Also on the tail can faintly be seen a hieroglyph inscription which reads, “The gift of Amun,” who was the Egyptian deity associated with the wind.

In an article entitled, “African Experimental Aeronautics—a 2,000-Year-Old Model Glider,” Dr. Messiha made these initial observations:

“One can note that there is a dihedral angle which is slightly unequal on both sides due to slight distortion of the wood, caused by the passage of time. The body is made of the same wood as the wing and has an aerofoil shape beautifully carved and smooth. Its nose is pyramidal in shape with one eye painted on its right surface. There is not trace of any decoration of ’feathers’ painted on the body with the exception of the eye, and two faint reddish lines surrounding the belly under the grooves. The lower part of the tail is broken flat which I think may be an evidence that the tail was attached there. I have already made a similar balsa wood model, and added the tail-plane which I suppose was lost, and was not astonished to find that it could sail in the air a few yards when thrown by hand. This ancient aeroplane model represents a diminutive of an original monoplane possibly still present in Saqqara.”

Dr. Messiha, interviewed in the May 18, 1972 London Times, made these additional comments on the ancient plane’s shape and sophistication:

“It is the tail that is really the most interesting thing which distinguishes this model from all others that have been discovered. No bird can produce such a contortion at the rear of its body to assume anything that looks like the model. Furthermore, there is a groove under the fin for a tail-plane (crosspiece) which is missing. This is no toy model—it’s too scientifically designed and it took a lot of skill to make it.”

Several aerodynamics experts and pilots agree with Dr. Messiha’s assessment. Flight engineer Guirgus Messiha, a relative to Dr. Messiha, observed:

“The negative dihedral angle fulfills the same requirements as the positive; a section shows that the surface of the wing is part of an ellipse which provides stability in flight; the aerofoil of the body lessens the drag, a fact which was discovered only after years of experimental work in aeronautics.”

A full-scale version of the plane could have flown carrying heavy loads, but at low speeds, between 45 and 65 miles per hour. What is not known, however, is what the power source of the ancient craft was. Several engineers did note that the model makes a perfect glider as it is. In fact, it would have taken only the efforts of a small catapult to get a life-sized model in the air. Simply by using the rising heat currents off the Egyptian deserts on either side of the Nile, such a craft would have been able to stay in the air indefinitely with skilled maneuvering. The little model itself, even though over two thousand years old, will soar a short distance with only a slight jerk of the hand. As Dr. Messiha discovered, fully restored balsa replicas will travel even farther. Just before the time period from which the little model came, a philosopher and friend of Plato, Archytas of Tarentum (circa 400–365 B.C.E.), is said to have successfully “set in motion a flying machine in the form of a wooden dove by means of compressed air.”

The source of his construction plans and designs had been obtained from manuscripts which eventually made their way into the Library of Alexandria, dating back to a period already considered ancient in his day.

The Saqqara sail-plane has inherent within it design features which appear to have been standardized by the ancient Egyptians over a long period of time. Three relief figures from the Temple of Khonsu at Karnak, the earliest dating to the time of Ramses III or a thousand years before the Saqqara model was made, show the mastheads of royal ships possessing bird-like weathervanes which look remarkably like the wooden glider, complete with fixed outstretched wings and vertical tail.

As modern free flight glider designer and builder Martin Gregorie pointed out, the intrinsic shaping of these ancient figurines, like that of the Saqqara model, would have made them excellent weathervanes, for they would have pointed directly and steadily into the wind and would not have veered from side to side.

Based on these reliefs, and on the Saqqara glider itself, creative modeler and aviation historian Paula Mercado has drawn detailed designs for a modern version of the ancient sail-plane, which any small-scale glider enthusiast can build and successfully fly today.

Yet the question remains, what was the original Saqqara “bird” based upon? As Dr. Messiha noted, the ancient Egyptians always built scale models of everything they were familiar with in their daily lives and placed them in their tombs—model temples, ships, chariots, servants and animals. Now that we have found a model plane, Dr. Messiha wonders if perhaps somewhere under the desert sands along the Nile there may yet be unearthed the remains of life-sized gliders, after which the Saqqara sail-plane was copied.

During my twenty-five trips to Egypt between 1981 and 1997, I had several opportunities to meet with Dr. Messiha and his family. He was kind enough to take time out from his busy medical practice and lecture engagements to speak to our tour groups on a number of occasions, even accompanying us to Saqqara and showing us where the model glider had been found.

Twice I was also graciously invited into his home for dinner, and to meet with a group of local intellectuals. On one of these private visits he showed me the balsa model of the Saqqara glider he had made, and allowed me to toss it in a “test flight” across his veranda. The doctor’s model is roughly five times the size of the small glider in the Cairo Museum, to make it more airworthy, but I could plainly see that he had faithfully incorporated all the design features inherent in the moder ancient artifact.

In a conversation I had with him on that occasion, Dr. Messiha told me that he was of the opinion that the model from the tomb was an artist’s impression of something much larger that he had seen up close and in operation when he was alive. The small wooden object, when it was in pristine condition, probably did not fly very well. But that had not been its purpose. Its purpose, as far as the artist had been concerned, was to make a simple diminuative replica of something worthy enough to be a tomb offering for the afterlife. As Dr. Messiha noted, most of the design features inherent in the full scale craft it had been based upon were accurately artistically reproduced to the point that they are still clearly identifiable over two thousand years later.

Not long before he died in 1998, Dr. Messiha made arrangements for one of our tours to meet him in the Cairo Museum. He escorted us up to Room No. 22, which the museum guards temporarily closed off specially for our group. With the permission and under the supervision of a museum official who was a colleague of the doctor, the display case was opened and for almost an hour we were privileged to examine the Saqqara glider up close. Unfortunately, because of Museum policy we were not allowed to take any photographs or videotape, but I did take careful notes both of Dr. Messiah’s observations and what I saw for myself.

Over the last few years there has been a number of conservative skeptics who have published articles, especially on the Internet, who have tried to claim that the Saqqara object is anything but a sophisticated glider, and have offered their own arguments that it is merely an ancient Egyptian bird figurine. Typical of the reactionary responses is this conclusion made by Larry Orcutt of the Catchpenny Mysteries website:

“Of the two theories that the artifact is intended to represent either a bird or an aircraft, the former is the only one tenable based on the corpus of evidence that is known to exist.”

I would like to answer some of these objections with my own studies, the posthumous research from Dr. Messiha‘s estate, other researchers’ findings, and especially based on the detailed close-up examination I personally performed on the Saqqara glider just over ten years ago.

The very first impression one gets when looking at the model is that it is no artist’s expression of a bird. Unlike the other objects seen in the same display case in which the model is kept, there are no renditions of legs, feet, aviary-type wings-in-flight attitudes, pronounced beak or artistic portrayal of feathers, drawn or carved. The Wikipedia entry under “Saqqara Bird” on the Internet claims:

“It has a beak, holes for feathers, eyes, and was originally painted to resemble a falcon, with clear images to represent feathers on the wings.”

This descriptioin in every one of its aspects is totally false. There is a slight protrusion at the front of the model suggesting a beak, but is part of the overall aerodynamic design. No paint or change of coloration was made to accentuate a bird beak—instead it is an aerofoil feature that is an essential part of the fuselage.

There are no prominent holes anywhere on the body of the model—certainly not for holding feathers, or feet, or even a pole to swivel on as some have claimed if the object was once used as a weathervane. The first thing I did when I was handed the glider was to very carefully turn it over in my hands, because there are no published photographs showing its underside. I found no evidence of any holes where legs or feet were once attached, or any smaller holes into which feathers could have been inserted. The underbelly of the craft was relatively smooth, though worn with age. The only original significant indentation that I could see was in the center of the top of the wing, where the wing assemblage was attached to the main body.

There is, to be sure, a prominent circular indentation in the artifact’s underside, but there is very good evidence that this was added soon after it had arrived in the Cairo Museum, toward the beginning of the last century. The shallow “hole” was deliberately set in place by the Museum’s early restoration department so as to be able to mount the piece on an exhibit stand. Similar modern indentations can be observed on the bird figurines that share space with the Saqqara glider in its display case—every one was an addition necessary for mounting and exhibition purposes.

Neither does the artifact have any artist’s renderings of feathers. Skeptics have suggested that painted on feathers could have been worn off over time. But though I had the time to carefully examine practically every square millimeter of the model, I saw no images of feathers, or even flecks of paint indicating residue that would have been left behind had the model’s surface been subjected to some kind of paint coating and was subsequently weathered away. The only painted images I could detect were the simple outlines of eyes, two lines under the wing, the inscription near the tale, and a catalog number added in modern times. The ancient markings, as Dr. Messiha pointed out to me, may have been placed on the model as an afterthought, part of an effort to make it into a religious relic, to better fit within a tomb setting. Or as other researchers have surmised, these may have mirrored actual designs seen by the artist on the original craft—part of the same type of decal decorations seen on modern planes today.

The claim is further made by skeptics that the model was made to resemble a falcon because it was meant to be a ceremonial object commonly used to represent one the two main falcon-headed deities in ancient Egypt, either Horus or Ra-Harakhty.

Actually, this argument works in reverse. In Egyptian sacred iconography, the images of either Horus or Ra-Harakhty were invariably depicted with very specific symbols and ecoutrements. Horus in his full form was always shown holding either an Ankh or Shen symbol in his talons, and wearing a Pshemty or royal double crown on his brow, while Ra-Harakhty was never portrayed without a solar disc prominently placed on top of his head. Such features are totally lacking on the Saqqara model, and an inspection of its surfaces revealed no points where such important deific symbols were once attached. In fact, it is the striking absence of any traditional sacred markings that takes the model out of the realm of being a religious object and puts it instead squarely in the context of a technological artifact.

As an overcompensation going to the opposite extreme, some critics such as Larry Orcutt insist that the Saqqara model cannot be any kind of flying vehicle because of the lack of the appearance of obvious engine parts. He wrote on his website:

“Is the Saqqara artifact meant to represent an airplane? This seems unlikely especially in view of the absence of any evidence of the considerable support technology that would of necessity be associated with flight industry (such as wheels, engine machinery, parts manufacture,fuel production, etc.).”

The major assumption is made that any pre-existing technology of the past had to have been identical to our own today. But as any modern technologist will tell you, the more advanced a civilization becomes, the simpler becomes its creative designs, methods and general production. The flight of the Saqqara craft may very well have involved levels of sophistication in propulsion and dynamics which we today have yet to attain. The absence of such cumbersome artifacts such as machinery and petroleum fuels like we have today is not a negative proof. Instead it may be regarded as positive evidence for the possible existence of an ancient technology a few steps beyond our own.

By far the two most unbird-like features are the model’s wings and vertical tail. These are inherently linked with its aerodynamic body which is certainly very bird-like, yet radically different from any other ancient Egyptian statues of birds, particularly deified ones. One need only look at the bird figuries exhibited in the same museum display case as the model , to see the glaring differences. The figurine bodies were often slightly deformed to accentuate deific strength and power, while the wings were spread wide, feathers splayed, either in an attack or protective mode. And the tail was invariably fanned out horizontally when the figures were portrayed in flight. In contrast, the model’s body is sleak yet aerodynamically true, the wings are tight and fixed to support airlift capacity, and the back tail is riggedly vertical. All these are distinctive features of a glider, not a bird.

Another interesting observation is that the wing assemblage looks very much like a Native Australian boomerang. This resemblance becomes even more obvious when seen up close. We know that ancient Egyptian hunters used a throwing stick very similar in design and function to a boomerang, with which they brought down birds. The question is, was the Saqqara model wing based on the ancient throwing stick, or was the stick based on the model wing’s aerofoil shape?

Still other skeptics have dismissed the Saqqara model as having been nothing more than a child’s toy. The unanswered question, however, is if this was only a toy, why does it contain such sophisticated design features? The examination of the model I made convinced me this was not any haphazard creation made on a whim by an ancient artist trying to mimic a bird in flight. Holding the glider in my hand, I got a strong sense of its inherent balance and design sophistication. Rather than being a mere plaything, I felt that, to the contrary, this was the end-product of a long series of intensive experiments performed by a multitude of serious researchers over a very long period of time, perhaps several generations. The model was primarily meant to be studied and appreciated, as a learning tool.

A British designer, builer and flyer of modern model gliders—Martin Gregario—argued against the Saqqara model being flight-worthy, because stable flying requires a

“balance somewhere between 25% and 60% of the wing chord back from the leading edge. The wing chord is the average width of the wing, measured form front to back. A glance at the (Saqqara) bird shows that the body is made from a single piece of wood whose proportions are such that the balance point is at or behind the trailing edge of the wing. The bird’s head region has clearly never had a weight attached to it or buried within it. Such a weight would be needed to bring the balance point forward into the range given above.”

Adequately satisfying this requirement, the pupils of the “eyes” of the Saqqara model are really the ends of a small rod of obsidian that penetrates through the head from one side to the other. The “eyes” in fact may have been deliberately painted on to disguise what would otherwise have been perceived as defects on the model’s surface.

In my examination of the model in the Cairo Museum, I was able to detect the presence of the tiny obsidian knob on both sides of the head by ever so slightly passing my finger across its surface and sensing the difference in the texture. You can actually feel the stone protruding beyond where the wood has been minutely worn down over the ages. Dr. Messiha informed me that a chemical analysis of microscopic scrapings showed that the obsidian of both “eyes” are of the same composition, and a preliminary X-ray of the model made during its analysis in 1971 clearly reveals that the rod extends through the head.

It was this stone insert that provides the necessary balance point for the right weight distribution that enabled the model to fly. Other flyer designers—including Dr. Messiha—have likewise compensated for this weight re-distribution and have successfully proven that a larger Saqqara craft would have flown very well indeed.

One of the main criticisms against the Saqqara model being a glider is the apparent lack of a stabilizing tail-wing. Some authors have mistakingly written that Dr. Messiha found such a tail-wing, or that there is an obvious slot in the model’s vertical tail where a tail-wing was once attached. But Dr. Messiha assured me that neither was true.

However, as the doctor pointed out to me when we looked at the Saqqara glider together, the bottom edge of the vertical tail extending back into the main body is rough in appearance and to the touch, in contrast to the smoothness of the surfaces elsewhere. It is obvious another wood component that was once part of the original model extended out the back end from this point, and that it was subsequently broken off.

I also detected that the top of the vertical tail was flattened out of its natural contour, and there is the possibility something also was attached here in former times. In certain modern aircraft designs, in fact, the tail-wing appears at the top of the vertical tail rather than at its base.

Looking from a purely design function point of view, the only logical component that would have been placed in either location would have been a tail-wing—and that is precisely the one item that is missing.

The majority of those model plane enthusiasts who have taken the time and effort to actually build and fly a replica of the Saqqara glider, and have added the lost tail-wing find that it works very well. But to admit that the tail-wing could have once existed is a major obstacle to some people’s way of thinking.

As science writer Arthur C. Clarke in his book Profiles of the Future once described, discoveries of importance are often overlooked or go unanticipated because of either a failure of vision or a failure of nerve. Failure of vision involves a person having all the facts except one, and their inability to visualize that the one missing fact in all likelihood exists. The failure of nerve, in Clarke’s opinion, is far worse—for even when all the facts are present, pointing to an obvious conclusion, the observer still does not have what it takes to admit to what is clearly true.

The shortsightedness to recognizing that the tail-wing could have existed is a failure of vision. By deliberately ignoring the fact that by adding the tail-wing to modern models allows them to fly, is clearly a failure of nerve.

Yet despite all that has been researched and observed about the Saqqara glider, there is an intransigence in the world of conservative thinking that refuses to even consider that flying was known in the ancient past. All that we are left with are “authoritative” statements such as this one, found in Wikipedia:

“No ancient Egyptian aircraft have ever been found, nor has any other evidence suggesting their existence come to light. As a result, the theory that the Saqqara Bird is a model of a flying machine is not accepted by mainstream Egyptologists and is generally regarded as pseudo-archaeology.”

IN APPRECIATION — It is amazing how, time and again, when skeptics run out of arguments, they resort to vilifying the character of the proponents, especially after they have died. Not long after Dr. Messiha passed on in 1998, harsh criticisms began to appear about the nature of both his medical and archaeological work. He was a well-known practitioner of radiesthesia (diagnosing by dowsing). Through his research of various hieroglyph texts and temple wall engravings, he was able to identify that the ancient Egyptians had once utilized pendulums and other forms of dowsing instruments in not only finding sources of water and natural energy vortices in the surrounding desert landscape, but had also used the same tools for healing purposes. As early as 1967, as a certified archaeologist, Dr. Messiha had also conducted extensive experiments inside the Great Pyramid, and successfully located an unknown room beneath the Queen’s Chamber that he believes may be the real burial vault for Pharaoh Khufu.

Today, the basic principles of radiesthesia and dowsing are accepted in many circles of leading edge medical and historical research. Yet in spite of this, Dr. Messiha’s findings are pointed out by many conservative writers as obvious proof of his quackery. Even his discovery of the Saqqara glider is brought into serious question, and has been dismissed by some skeptics based solely on the nature of his research into other so-called “unacceptable” fields of endeavor.

Having met with him on numerous occasions, and having witnessed him in action in both his healing and historical endeavors, in my opinion Dr. Messiha should be remembered as an unsung pioneer and visionary—and a significant contributor to solving the mystery of the Saqqara glider.

[Copyright 2009. Joseph Robert Jochmans. All Rights Reserved.]