The First Flight

Introduction,

It was 17, December 1903 at Kitty Chowk, North Carolina, USA. The most awaited human dream visually came true. It was a breakthrough in the history of mankind. Yes! Orville and Wilbur Wright commonly mentioned as the Wright brothers proved that it is possible for human to travel through air, by flying the world’s first aircraft. But the question is, was that the first object to fly in the air?

Let’s see the Indian Vedic work in this background

Vedas are the oldest document of human race. There are four Vedas namely Rig-Veda, Atharvaveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda. They are the treasure of universal knowledge which covers wide range of topics from medicine to aerospace, architecture to music. Indians are the one who taught the concept of medicine, culture, civilization to the world. All these are well described in our Vedas, which are written about 12000 to 15000 years ago. At that period of time the world didn’t knew  the meaning of civilization, at that time we Indians used to practice these advanced scientific technics and documented them. Particularly in Rig-Veda we can find the art of flying and flying machines, which are generally called as Vimana. The Vedas speak of “Two storied celestial chariots with many windows. 

That roar off into the sky until they appear like comets and capable of flying to the solar and stellar regions”

Col. Olcott an American military officer and eminent journalist in US says that

“The ancient Hindus could navigate the air, and not only navigate it, but fight battles in it like so many war-eagles, combating for the domination of the clouds. To be so perfect in aeronautics they must have known all the arts and sciences relating to the science, including the strata and currents of the atmosphere, the relative temperature, humidity, density and specific gravity of the various gases...”

Background

From the many documents  it is evident that the scientist-sages Agastya and Bharadwaja had developed the lore of aircraft construction. The “Agastya Samhita” gives us Agastya`s descriptions of two types of airplanes. The first is a “chchatra” (umbrella or balloon) to be filled with hydrogen. The process of extracting hydrogen from water is described in elaborate detail and the use of electricity in achieving this is clearly stated. Second type of aircraft mentioned is somewhat on lines of the parachute. It could be opened and shut by operating chords.

Aeronautics or Vaimaanika Shastra is a part of Yantra Sarvasva of Bharadwaja. This is also known as Brihadvimaana Shastra. Vaimaanika shastra deals about aeronautics, including the design of aircraft, the way they can be used for transportation and other applications, in detail. The knowledge of aeronautics is described in Sanskrit in 100 sections, 8 chapters, 500 principles and 3000 slokas. Great sage Bharadwaja explained the construction of aircraft and way to fly it in air, on land, on water and use the same aircraft like a sub-marine. He also described the construction of war planes and fighter aircraft. It also explains the metals and alloys and other required material, used to build an  aircraft which are imperishable at any condition. Planes which will not break (abhedya), or catch fire (adaahya) and which cannot be cut (achchedya) have been described. The aircraft is classified into three types- Mantrika, Tantrika and Kritaka, to suit different yugas or eras. In kritayuga, it is said, Dharma was well established. The people of that time had the devinity to reach any place using their Ashtasiddhis. The aircraft used in Tretayuga are called Mantrikavimana, flown by the power of hymns (mantras). Twenty-five varieties of aircraft including Pushpaka Vimana belong to this era. The aircraft used in Dwaparayuga were called Tantrikavimana, flown by the power of tantras. Fifty six varieties of aircraft including Bhairava and Nandaka belong to this era.

 The aircraft used in Kaliyuga, the on-going yuga, are called Kritakavimana, flown by the power of engines. Twenty-five varieties of aircraft including “Sundara”, “Shukana” and “Rukma” belong to this era. Bharadwaja states that there are thirty-two secrets of the science of aeronautics. Of these some are astonishing and some indicate an advance even beyond our own times. For instance the secret of “para shabda graaha”, i.e. a cabin for listening to conversation in another plane has been explained elaborately by an electrically worked sound-receiver that did a trick in a war field, so the application of communication system can be seen long ago.

It appears that aerial warfare was also not unknown in that period , because in some of the document we can see the technique of “shatru vimana kampana kriya” and “shatru vimana nashana kriya” i.e. shaking and destroying enemy aircraft, as well as photographing enemy planes, making their opponent unconscious and making one`s own plane invisible. In Vastraadhikarana, the chapter describing the dress and other wear required while flying, talks in detail about the wear for both the pilot and the passenger separately. Ahaaraadhikarana is yet another section exclusively dealing with the food habits of a pilot. This has a variety of guidelines for pilots to keep their health through strict diet.

TALPADE'S RESEARCH

Shivkar Babuji Talpade (1864 – 1917), from his childhood developed his dreams of flying and getting into space. He was a great Sanskrit scholar and started searching the possibilities of man flying in the space in ancient Indian scripts, Vedas. He thoroughly learned Sanskrit, Vaisheshik Darshan (Vedic Physics) according to the Advt. Published by him on his Marathi book on Vimana called Prachina Vimana Kalecha Sodha, a businessmen from Mumbai sponsored him in his work. 

One day Talpade was lucky enough to meet Shri Subbaraaya Sasthri, who gave him a bundle of treasures which contained sutras (formulas) of making an aircraft, written by the great rishi Bharadwaja. After this incident Talpade continued his work more seriously than before. It may be too hard to believe that modern day aircrafts and even most advanced one are discussed in Vedas which are written some 10,000 years ago.

In 1895, eight years before the Wright Brothers, Shivkar Bapuji Talpade and his wife gave a thrilling demonstration flight on the Chowpatty beach in Mumbai. The name of the Unmanned Air vehicle is Marutsakha vimana. The people around found that something sensational are going to happen there. Some knew what it

was, some did not. A huge mass of crowd has accumulated and among them was Shri Sayaji Rao Gaekwa, who was the Maharaja of Baroda during that time and the most influenced famous scholar justice Mahadeva Govinda Ranade. Everyone there was waiting with anxiety and before that anxiety drowned that miracle happened. Yes! The world’s first unmanned aircraft named Marutsakha was thrown into the space ,with the velocity of about 40,000 Km/hr. After reaching a height of more than 1500 feet it landed safely without any damage. Between the hustle, Talpade was literally appreciated by Maharaja at that moment itself. It was Maharaja’s happiest moment for which he has been waiting for long period.

This demonstration was attended by eminent citizens including, Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwand of Baroda and Mr. Justice Ranade. That was reported in "The Kesari" a leading Marathi daily newspaper. It is feared that only portions of Bharadwaja’s masterpiece Vaimanika Shastra survive today. In 1895 after the news release in the media, talpade and sasthri were jailed by the British Government stating the reason that they are experimenting on the explosives using mercury. Maharaja was warned literally British officers. Few years later, talpade

returned home and he withdrew his research. After his death in 1917, it is said that his relatives sold some of his important works to Ralley Brothers. Then some materials came to Ministry of Defence and some were sent to HAL, Bengaluru. A model reconstruction of Marutsakhā was exhibited at an exhibition on aviation at Vile Parle ,and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has preserved documents relating to the experiment. An even more astonishing feature of Talpade’s aircraft was the power source he used- An Ion Engine (using mercury).

The information on the mercury ion engines can be found in the ancient Vedic text called Samaranga Sutradhara. This text also devotes 230 verses, to the use of these machines in peace and war. The Indologist William Clarendon, who has written down a detailed description of the mercury vortex engine in his translation of Samaranga Sutradhara quotes that, Inside the circular air frame, place the mercury-engine with its solar mercury boiler at the aircraft center. By means of the power latent in the heated mercury which sets the driving whirlwind in motion a man sitting inside may travel a great distance in a most marvellous manner. Four strong mercury containers must be built into the interior structure. When these have been heated by fire through solar or other sources the vimana (aircraft) develops thunder-power through the mercury.

NASA (National Aeronautical and Space Administration) world’s richest/ most powerful scientific organisation is trying to create an ion engine that is a device that uses a stream of high velocity electrified particles instead of a blast of hot gases like in present day modern jet engines. Surprisingly according to the bi-monthly Ancient Skies published in USA, the aircraft engines being developed for future use by NASA coincidentally uses mercury bombardment units powered by Solar cells! Interestingly, the impulse is generated in seven stages. The mercury propellant is first vaporised fed into the thrusters discharge chamber ionised converted into plasma by a combination with electrons broke down electrically and then accelerated through small openings in a screen to pass out of the engine at velocities between 1200 to 3000 kilometers per minute!

At last we can conclude that first aircraft in the world was designed and flew in the Vedic age itself, “Feel proud to be an Indian”

[This article is the critical analyses of the paper ” Vedic Ion Engine”, International Journal of Engineering and Innovative Technology (IJEIT) Volume 4, Issue 3, September 2014]

Article by

Dhanush Kadri

IIAEM, JAIN UNIVERSITY.