Archytas of Terentum First Drone

mathematician, political leader (elected seven times), and philosopher

Alive and active during the time of Plato. We know this because he sent a ship to rescue Plato from Syracuse. (not the city → this guy).

We only have four fragments of Archytas' work. We mostly rely on writings that took place fifty years after his death to piece together his life.

350 B. C.

The first self-propelled flying device

Wooden mechanical dove capable of flapping wings and flying

200 Meters using compressed air and steam.

These are second-hand reports and many believe pulleys and counterweights were used since the first wind up bird was not invented until a few hundred years later by Hero of Alexandria who will talk about next week-This is only a theory since all records of the event state that-the bird actually flew but with no drawings of the workings of the dove we have to take guesses. Until a clever person or child recreates this original drone using materials and techniques of the times to see what was possible.

Bibliography

A Brief History of Robot Birds

The early Greeks and Renaissance artists had birds on their brains By Jimmy Stamp

SMITHSONIANMAG.COM 

MAY 22, 2013

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Archytas

First published Thu Jun 26, 2003; substantive revision Tue Aug 23, 2016

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