Pioneers of Flight: Eilmer of Malmesbury

This topic was posted 5/17/2014, just a bit of an update.

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First Flight in America, 1757 [06/07/2013]

Eilmer of Malmesbury was Europe's first aviator around 1005-1010 AD. William of Malmesbury wrote about 100 years after the event in 'Deeds of the English Kings': "He was a man of good learning for those times; of mature ge and in his early youth had hazarded an attempt of singular temerity; he had by some contrivance fastened to his hands and feet in ordet that he night fly asly in Daedalus, and collecting the air, on the summit of a tower, had flown for a distance of a furlong (200m); but agitated by the violence of the wind and a current of air, as well as the consciousness of his rash attempt, he fell and broke both his legs, and was lame ever after. He used to relate as the cause of the failure that he had forgotten to provide himself with a tail!"
Eilmer of Malmesbury:
The First European to Fly in the 11th Century
- Malmesbury Abbey | 4:03
Evelyn Edwards | 52.4K subscribers | 1,718 views | March 20, 2024

--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
0:00 · Eilmer was a monk at a place called Malmesbury Abbey in the southwest of England in the 11th
0:08 · century The Abbey followed the rule of St Benedict prayer and work Eilmer joined the Abbey when he
0:18 · was quite young while he was there he studied mathematics and astrology Eilmer often looked
0:27 · to the sky and was fascinated with what he saw and felt… the birds the current of the wind when
0:35 · Elmer was around five or six It is believed that he saw Halley's Comet and he remembered
0:42 · it for the rest of his life he also loved Greek mythology and he was particularly interested in
0:50 · the story of Daedalus in the myth Daedalus was a master Craftsman an inventor and an architect
0:59 · who created a vast Labyrinth at Crete that held a captive Minotaur a creature that had the body of
1:08 · a man and the head of a bull eventually the king of Crete imprisoned Deus and his son Icarus in
1:18 · The Labyrinth to escape Daedalus created wings for both he and his son made of bird feathers thread
1:29 · and bees wax these magnificent wings look just like those of a great bird Daedalus warned his
1:39 · son specifically not to fly too close to the Sun else the beeswax would melt and the wings would
1:47 · break Icarus didn't heed his father's warning and he flew to the sun falling from the sky deep into
1:57 · the sea where he drown Eilmer was fascinated by this idea of man being able to fly if Daedalus
2:10 · could fashion something to make him fly could Elmer around the year 1005 to 1010 which could
2:21 · possibly have made him around 25 years old Eilmer took his dreams and made them real he made wings
2:32 · of his own and strapped them to his hands and his feet he climbed up to the top of the tower
2:39 · of the Abbey and jumped Eilmer flew for 15 seconds a total of 200 meters before he fell breaking both
2:53 · of his legs Elmer was crippled for the rest of his life but this accident didn't dissuade him
3:04 · as the years passed he began believing that if he would have added a tail with the wings he made
3:10 · he would have been more stable modern Aviation experts think he could have been right Eilmer's
3:20 · 15 seconds in the sky made him the first European to fly with control he continued to look to the
3:31 · skies and dream he wrote about astrology and when he was possibly in his 80s he saw Halley's Comet
3:40 · again Eilmer died in 1066 but his time in the sky became so well known that another Monk who
3:52 · lived at the Abbey wrote his story down for us and people would continue to tell his story for
4:00 · centuries

Jason Kingsley, the Modern Knight, discusses two fragmentary records of medieval flying machines actually being tested out. What happened? Eilmer of Malmesbury: The Medieval Monk Who Tried to Fly

Did a medieval monk really attempt human flight nearly a thousand years ago? In this video, we uncover the fascinating story of Eilmer of Malmesbury, the 11th-century English monk who strapped wings to his arms and launched himself from the tower of Malmesbury Abbey around the year 1010.
A Flying Machine before the Battle of Hastings 1066? | 7:28
Modern History TV | 941K subscribers | 67,738 views | February 24, 2025

--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
0:01 · wildly in 1010 more than 60 years before
0:05 · Harold fell at senlac Hill and Duke
0:07 · William became the Conqueror a
0:10 · pioneering monk leapt from an Abbey
0:12 · Tower with wings made of cloth and wood
0:16 · and flew into history
0:26 · [Music]
0:30 · [Applause]
0:30 · [Music]
0:38 · [Music]
0:45 · that Monk's name was Elmer Elmer of
0:48 · molsbury Abbey and he jumped from the
0:50 · tower at the Abbey and flew an eighth of
0:54 · a mile and landed badly and broke both
0:57 · of his legs which never properly healed
0:59 · so left him crippled he seems to have
1:02 · been born in sometime around 990 and he
1:05 · saw Haley's Comet in
1:08 · 1066 which is the second time he's
1:10 · mentioned in history so he had quite a
1:12 · long life uh to deal with that injury
1:15 · the guesta regam angelorum
1:18 · says he was a man learned for those
1:20 · times of rip old age and in his early
1:23 · youth he hazarded a deed of remarkable
1:25 · boldness he had by some means I scarcely
1:28 · know what fastened Wings to his hands
1:31 · and feet so that mistaking Fable for
1:33 · truth he might fly like dilus and
1:36 · collecting the breeze upon the summit of
1:38 · a tower flew for more than a furong but
1:42 · agitated by the violence of the wind and
1:44 · of the swirling of air as well as by the
1:46 · awareness of his rash attempt he fell
1:49 · broke both his legs and was lame ever
1:52 · after he used to relate as the cause of
1:55 · his failure his forgetting to provide
1:57 · himself a tale we don't actually know
2:00 · how tall the tower was that he jumped
2:03 · from but the original tower apparently
2:05 · was over 400 ft High I doubt he jumped
2:08 · from the very top so may have had a
2:09 · Spire so if we assume he jumped from I
2:12 · don't know 200 ft um and flew for
2:15 · quarter a mile uh that's a gliding angle
2:18 · of about 17° which is steep but is a
2:21 · modern gliding uh angle sometimes uh and
2:26 · he must have potentially sort of glided
2:29 · down and then sort of swooped upwards
2:31 · and maybe Fallen backwards pure
2:33 · conjecture of course we just don't know
2:35 · but if you think about it he talks about
2:37 · in the record about complaining he
2:39 · didn't have a tail and if he had that he
2:41 · may have stalled sort of swooped down
2:44 · quite steeply and maybe he panicked
2:47 · maybe he struggled maybe something
2:48 · happened and he sort of swirled and went
2:50 · crashing back down again so um we'll
2:52 · never know uh and I don't know anybody
2:54 · that's brave enough to actually try it
2:56 · for real but it was also incredibly
3:00 · spectacular for the time I mean as a
3:03 · young man I guess uh we we take risks
3:06 · and he certainly did that as well and uh
3:08 · it cost him for the rest of his life uh
3:10 · he talks about not really healing his
3:13 · legs not particularly healing very much
3:17 · uh so yeah that was quite a gamble MRE
3:20 · Abbey was actually founded in 639 by El
3:22 · Helm who had a reputation as a scholar
3:25 · poet it actually developed a reputation
3:27 · for what would called natural philosophy
3:30 · which we might think of as a precursors
3:31 · to modern science um obviously it was
3:34 · completely steeped in the religious
3:36 · nature of the institution but it was
3:38 · definitely seen at the time as quite an
3:41 · important place for people to study
3:43 · interesting things and perhaps Elmer was
3:48 · an outcrop of that maybe he decided to
3:52 · look at the stories of dilus uh that he
3:55 · would have known of course and have a go
3:58 · see whether they were true kind of
4:00 · experimental archaeology if you like I
4:02 · suppose now some of the abbots seem to
4:05 · have had quite a checked history one
4:07 · seems to be murdered by his pupils we
4:09 · don't really know why or what went on
4:12 · there another died during a drunken orgy
4:15 · in the town in 1053 which would have
4:18 · coincided with Elmer's life as well so
4:21 · it seems like the Abbey itself
4:22 · potentially had a bit of an eccentric um
4:25 · attitude to study and religious
4:29 · compliance science perhaps don't know
4:31 · again pure conjecture but it it is
4:33 · interesting that some of the Abbotts did
4:36 · seem to be a bit sort of bit rebellious
4:39 · and a bit
4:40 · unusual Elmer it seems wasn't the only
4:43 · person to experiment in this way
4:44 · interestingly in a different part of the
4:46 · world in Islamic Spain uh 200 years
4:49 · before we have a record of a trap called
4:52 · Abus ibben Fess who also constructed
4:56 · wings of cloth and wood this time he
4:59 · flew from the side of a steep hill
5:01 · though uh and he flew for about 200
5:03 · yards again um and remarkably he broke
5:06 · his legs uh and complained about the not
5:10 · being a tail which caused him to crash
5:13 · now I think that's an interesting
5:14 · coincidence I could there have been an
5:17 · exchange of information could Elma have
5:19 · heard of this incident it's not
5:22 · impossible but there's no evidence as
5:24 · such there was academic exchange at this
5:28 · time there were Works going backwards
5:31 · and forwards but not in the same way as
5:32 · you might expect today of course but
5:36 · it's possible it's not impossible
5:38 · basically because he may well have
5:41 · studied this and come across a
5:42 · manuscript that we subsequently lost one
5:44 · of the things that I find quite
5:45 · inspiring about these stories is that
5:49 · many many hundreds of years ago people
5:51 · were experimenting they were seeing
5:53 · whether it was possible to build wings
5:55 · and fly like daus and Icarus or whether
5:57 · it was just made up nonsense and both
5:59 · men discovered that it was true orbe it
6:01 · dangerous now did the ancient Greeks
6:03 · have a go at doing this well we don't
6:05 · know there's no record of it but it's
6:07 · not entirely impossible um did everybody
6:10 · that tried it break their legs well the
6:12 · two people that we know of that did in
6:15 · you know in the Middle Ages both broke
6:18 · their legs however what might have
6:21 · happened if they hadn't had that kind of
6:23 · an injury what if they went oh that was
6:25 · quite close I just I will build a tail I
6:28 · will have another go could you imagine a
6:30 · situation where there were more gliding
6:33 · things in the medieval period I don't
6:35 · think we'd have had powered flight much
6:37 · earlier but we might well have done it's
6:40 · not impossible I think power to weight
6:41 · ratio is a really important aspect of
6:43 · this but we could have had gliding um we
6:46 · could had gliding in medieval warfare
6:48 · arguably uh which is quite a remarkable
6:51 · idea or kites for um looking out and uh
6:55 · and seeing where the enemy is and that
6:57 · would have changed things entirely kites
6:59 · are slightly different but at the same
7:01 · time it's a form of flying sometimes
7:03 · knowledge goes in stops and starts and I
7:06 · think this is one of those where people
7:08 · experimented realized it was quite
7:10 · dangerous uh nearly died and everybody
7:12 · went let's not do that again but what if
7:15 · what if somebody had gone let's have a
7:17 · go let's expand that knowledge and keep
7:19 · going I think it's fascinating that the
7:22 · attitude of Discovery existed back then
7:25 · as it does now

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--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
0:00	·	Eilmer was a monk at a place called Malmesbury Abbey in the southwest of England in the 11th
0:08	·	century The Abbey followed the rule of St Benedict prayer and work Eilmer joined the Abbey when he
0:18	·	was quite young while he was there he studied mathematics and astrology Eilmer often looked
0:27	·	to the sky and was fascinated with what he saw and felt… the birds the current of the wind when
0:35	·	Elmer was around five or six It is believed that he saw Halley's Comet and he remembered
0:42	·	it for the rest of his life he also loved Greek mythology and he was particularly interested in
0:50	·	the story of Daedalus in the myth Daedalus was a master Craftsman an inventor and an architect
0:59	·	who created a vast Labyrinth at Crete that held a captive Minotaur a creature that had the body of
1:08	·	a man and the head of a bull eventually the king of Crete imprisoned Deus and his son Icarus in
1:18	·	The Labyrinth to escape Daedalus created wings for both he and his son made of bird feathers thread
1:29	·	and bees wax these magnificent wings look just like those of a great bird Daedalus warned his
1:39	·	son specifically not to fly too close to the Sun else the beeswax would melt and the wings would
1:47	·	break Icarus didn't heed his father's warning and he flew to the sun falling from the sky deep into
1:57	·	the sea where he drown Eilmer was fascinated by this idea of man being able to fly if Daedalus
2:10	·	could fashion something to make him fly could Elmer around the year 1005 to 1010 which could
2:21	·	possibly have made him around 25 years old Eilmer took his dreams and made them real he made wings
2:32	·	of his own and strapped them to his hands and his feet he climbed up to the top of the tower
2:39	·	of the Abbey and jumped Eilmer flew for 15 seconds a total of 200 meters before he fell breaking both
2:53	·	of his legs Elmer was crippled for the rest of his life but this accident didn't dissuade him
3:04	·	as the years passed he began believing that if he would have added a tail with the wings he made
3:10	·	he would have been more stable modern Aviation experts think he could have been right Eilmer's
3:20	·	15 seconds in the sky made him the first European to fly with control he continued to look to the
3:31	·	skies and dream he wrote about astrology and when he was possibly in his 80s he saw Halley's Comet
3:40	·	again Eilmer died in 1066 but his time in the sky became so well known that another Monk who
3:52	·	lived at the Abbey wrote his story down for us and people would continue to tell his story for
4:00	·	centuries

--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
0:01	·	wildly in 1010 more than 60 years before
0:05	·	Harold fell at senlac Hill and Duke
0:07	·	William became the Conqueror a
0:10	·	pioneering monk leapt from an Abbey
0:12	·	Tower with wings made of cloth and wood
0:16	·	and flew into history
0:26	·	[Music]
0:30	·	[Applause]
0:30	·	[Music]
0:38	·	[Music]
0:45	·	that Monk's name was Elmer Elmer of
0:48	·	molsbury Abbey and he jumped from the
0:50	·	tower at the Abbey and flew an eighth of
0:54	·	a mile and landed badly and broke both
0:57	·	of his legs which never properly healed
0:59	·	so left him crippled he seems to have
1:02	·	been born in sometime around 990 and he
1:05	·	saw Haley's Comet in
1:08	·	1066 which is the second time he's
1:10	·	mentioned in history so he had quite a
1:12	·	long life uh to deal with that injury
1:15	·	the guesta regam angelorum
1:18	·	says he was a man learned for those
1:20	·	times of rip old age and in his early
1:23	·	youth he hazarded a deed of remarkable
1:25	·	boldness he had by some means I scarcely
1:28	·	know what fastened Wings to his hands
1:31	·	and feet so that mistaking Fable for
1:33	·	truth he might fly like dilus and
1:36	·	collecting the breeze upon the summit of
1:38	·	a tower flew for more than a furong but
1:42	·	agitated by the violence of the wind and
1:44	·	of the swirling of air as well as by the
1:46	·	awareness of his rash attempt he fell
1:49	·	broke both his legs and was lame ever
1:52	·	after he used to relate as the cause of
1:55	·	his failure his forgetting to provide
1:57	·	himself a tale we don't actually know
2:00	·	how tall the tower was that he jumped
2:03	·	from but the original tower apparently
2:05	·	was over 400 ft High I doubt he jumped
2:08	·	from the very top so may have had a
2:09	·	Spire so if we assume he jumped from I
2:12	·	don't know 200 ft um and flew for
2:15	·	quarter a mile uh that's a gliding angle
2:18	·	of about 17° which is steep but is a
2:21	·	modern gliding uh angle sometimes uh and
2:26	·	he must have potentially sort of glided
2:29	·	down and then sort of swooped upwards
2:31	·	and maybe Fallen backwards pure
2:33	·	conjecture of course we just don't know
2:35	·	but if you think about it he talks about
2:37	·	in the record about complaining he
2:39	·	didn't have a tail and if he had that he
2:41	·	may have stalled sort of swooped down
2:44	·	quite steeply and maybe he panicked
2:47	·	maybe he struggled maybe something
2:48	·	happened and he sort of swirled and went
2:50	·	crashing back down again so um we'll
2:52	·	never know uh and I don't know anybody
2:54	·	that's brave enough to actually try it
2:56	·	for real but it was also incredibly
3:00	·	spectacular for the time I mean as a
3:03	·	young man I guess uh we we take risks
3:06	·	and he certainly did that as well and uh
3:08	·	it cost him for the rest of his life uh
3:10	·	he talks about not really healing his
3:13	·	legs not particularly healing very much
3:17	·	uh so yeah that was quite a gamble MRE
3:20	·	Abbey was actually founded in 639 by El
3:22	·	Helm who had a reputation as a scholar
3:25	·	poet it actually developed a reputation
3:27	·	for what would called natural philosophy
3:30	·	which we might think of as a precursors
3:31	·	to modern science um obviously it was
3:34	·	completely steeped in the religious
3:36	·	nature of the institution but it was
3:38	·	definitely seen at the time as quite an
3:41	·	important place for people to study
3:43	·	interesting things and perhaps Elmer was
3:48	·	an outcrop of that maybe he decided to
3:52	·	look at the stories of dilus uh that he
3:55	·	would have known of course and have a go
3:58	·	see whether they were true kind of
4:00	·	experimental archaeology if you like I
4:02	·	suppose now some of the abbots seem to
4:05	·	have had quite a checked history one
4:07	·	seems to be murdered by his pupils we
4:09	·	don't really know why or what went on
4:12	·	there another died during a drunken orgy
4:15	·	in the town in 1053 which would have
4:18	·	coincided with Elmer's life as well so
4:21	·	it seems like the Abbey itself
4:22	·	potentially had a bit of an eccentric um
4:25	·	attitude to study and religious
4:29	·	compliance science perhaps don't know
4:31	·	again pure conjecture but it it is
4:33	·	interesting that some of the Abbotts did
4:36	·	seem to be a bit sort of bit rebellious
4:39	·	and a bit
4:40	·	unusual Elmer it seems wasn't the only
4:43	·	person to experiment in this way
4:44	·	interestingly in a different part of the
4:46	·	world in Islamic Spain uh 200 years
4:49	·	before we have a record of a trap called
4:52	·	Abus ibben Fess who also constructed
4:56	·	wings of cloth and wood this time he
4:59	·	flew from the side of a steep hill
5:01	·	though uh and he flew for about 200
5:03	·	yards again um and remarkably he broke
5:06	·	his legs uh and complained about the not
5:10	·	being a tail which caused him to crash
5:13	·	now I think that's an interesting
5:14	·	coincidence I could there have been an
5:17	·	exchange of information could Elma have
5:19	·	heard of this incident it's not
5:22	·	impossible but there's no evidence as
5:24	·	such there was academic exchange at this
5:28	·	time there were Works going backwards
5:31	·	and forwards but not in the same way as
5:32	·	you might expect today of course but
5:36	·	it's possible it's not impossible
5:38	·	basically because he may well have
5:41	·	studied this and come across a
5:42	·	manuscript that we subsequently lost one
5:44	·	of the things that I find quite
5:45	·	inspiring about these stories is that
5:49	·	many many hundreds of years ago people
5:51	·	were experimenting they were seeing
5:53	·	whether it was possible to build wings
5:55	·	and fly like daus and Icarus or whether
5:57	·	it was just made up nonsense and both
5:59	·	men discovered that it was true orbe it
6:01	·	dangerous now did the ancient Greeks
6:03	·	have a go at doing this well we don't
6:05	·	know there's no record of it but it's
6:07	·	not entirely impossible um did everybody
6:10	·	that tried it break their legs well the
6:12	·	two people that we know of that did in
6:15	·	you know in the Middle Ages both broke
6:18	·	their legs however what might have
6:21	·	happened if they hadn't had that kind of
6:23	·	an injury what if they went oh that was
6:25	·	quite close I just I will build a tail I
6:28	·	will have another go could you imagine a
6:30	·	situation where there were more gliding
6:33	·	things in the medieval period I don't
6:35	·	think we'd have had powered flight much
6:37	·	earlier but we might well have done it's
6:40	·	not impossible I think power to weight
6:41	·	ratio is a really important aspect of
6:43	·	this but we could have had gliding um we
6:46	·	could had gliding in medieval warfare
6:48	·	arguably uh which is quite a remarkable
6:51	·	idea or kites for um looking out and uh
6:55	·	and seeing where the enemy is and that
6:57	·	would have changed things entirely kites
6:59	·	are slightly different but at the same
7:01	·	time it's a form of flying sometimes
7:03	·	knowledge goes in stops and starts and I
7:06	·	think this is one of those where people
7:08	·	experimented realized it was quite
7:10	·	dangerous uh nearly died and everybody
7:12	·	went let's not do that again but what if
7:15	·	what if somebody had gone let's have a
7:17	·	go let's expand that knowledge and keep
7:19	·	going I think it's fascinating that the
7:22	·	attitude of Discovery existed back then
7:25	·	as it does now