Breguet's pre-1914 ID Challenge #104

[Varese2002]

Cyrano de Bergerac cites in his 'Histoire comique des états et empires de la lune et du soleil' that he had seen a machine invented by a 'ingénieur polonais' which could fly like the birds.



Scoreboard at the end of ID Challenge #104:
18.60 Rbailey
14.20 Varese2002
10.70 aerohydro
9.20 Aquilius
6.70 richard B
6.30 matte_kudasai
6.00 Cruze
6.00 YavorD
5.50 Airarticles
5.00 Flamingo
**************
(those above this section have to wait 12 hours before answering,
those below may answer immediately)
**************
3.70 Rod_Filan
3.00 Lodzermensch
3.00 joegertler
2.00 berman
2.00 sobrien
2.00 Doc
1.10 Froggy
1.00 paolomiana
0.40 Wind In The Wires

Next one to Marek

[Lodzermensch]

Hello Kees,

Thank you for additional information on the topic and for one point, of course.

I have only one suggestion – I think you should revise a caption of the final scoreboard.

Cheers

Marek

[aerohydro]

The following title devotes an entire chapter to Tito Livio Burattini and his Dragons:

The PreHistory of Flight
by Clive Hart
University of California Press, 1985
ISBN-10: 0520052137
ISBN-13: 978-0520052130

It's quite a complete work, academic but not overly so.

Pleasingly, one of the sections of the book is now available online. This is the Directory of Heavier-Than-Air Flying Machines ..., listing those 'known' to have been built between 850 and 1783.

Cheers,
Paul

[Varese2002]

Looks like a great book from Clive Hart, thanks for the reference. I found in the volume Pioneer aircraft of Putnam's history of aircraft another piece by Clive Hart ('Dreams and realities'), which shows a picture of the 'dragon volant' that accompanied the treatise offered by Burattini to the Polish king Vladislav IV.

To my amazement the copy of the original shows much more detail than the one on internet I have included a few postings ago. The original has letters which explains there usage. So is E the big bulb on the back of the dragon described as a folded parachute (!).

It would be nice to see a complete copy of the original treatise with the sketches (without any photoshopping .... ).

Probably this is the manuscript mentioned by Clive Hart

Paris, Bibliotheque nationale, MS Lation 11195, ff. 50-61.

Cheers

Kees