December 22, 2007

Inca airplanes in Journeyman

On Wednesday's episode of Journeyman, time traveler Dan Vasser asks physicist Elliot Langley what he knows about the subject. As one example of possible time travel, Langley responds, "How did the Incas build perfect clay replicas of airplanes in 500 AD"?

I hadn't heard anything about that, so I looked it up. Here's what I found:

Ancient Aeroplanes

Did the Incas Build Aircraft?These golden sculptures are pre-Columbian. It is difficult to determine their exact age as gold is hard to date. However it is strongly believed that they date from around 500-800 CE. They have been found in central and also coastal regions of South America. When first found they were thought to be zoomorphic (representing animals). Well, looking at those images I can't come up with one animal looking like these artifacts below. Is it a bird, is it a plane...well it certainly looks like it from where I stand.


Comment:  I found only a couple of websites that discussed the "Incan airplanes." This is the kind of Internet posting I take with a shaker full of salt. It would be easy for someone to fake. Until I see the information in a scientific journal, or at least the National Geographic, I doubt it's real.

The page appears to have been put together by someone named Nicole Coleby. I don't claim that she's perpetuating a hoax, although she may be. It's just as likely that she's repeating rumors she's heard from a follower of Erich van Daniken. She's posted drawings by someone named Lumir G. Janko, so perhaps he's the source of the "airplanes."

2 comments:

  1. russell said...

    Writerfella here --

    Oh, poo! Look closely at the first illo (faked or no). Can't you see that it is a human figure wearing a cape? Oops, not the best association since von Danikers NOW could claim it shows an Incan SuperHero! Look! Up in the sky! It's a Quetzal! It's a Qantas! It's...MESOMAN, and not a second too soon!

    All Best
    Russ Bates
    'writerfella'

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  2. Anonymous12:16 AM

    amazing no scientist ever put this together. clay? no. how about balsa wood? guess where the balsa wood is native to? south america. you can go to your hobby store and buy balsa wood airplanes that actually fly. no doubt the Inca looked at a bird, made some balsa wood carvings, realized it needed a stabilizing tail fin, and recarved some new ones that could actually fly.
    -deviante

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