Abbas ibn Firnas: The First Human to Fly

Who He Was

Abbas ibn Firnas ibn Wirdas al-Takurini (810–887 CE) was an Andalusian polymath of Berber origin who lived and worked in Córdoba during its peak as an intellectual centre. He was an inventor, engineer, astronomer, physician, poet, and musician, and the first person in recorded history to achieve sustained heavier-than-air human flight.

What He Did

The flight of 875 CE: After spending years studying the mechanics of bird flight, ibn Firnas constructed a glider from a lightweight wooden frame covered in silk and eagle feathers, with a wingspan estimated at four to five metres. At approximately 65 years of age, he launched himself from the hills of Jabal al-'Arus near Córdoba before a crowd of witnesses. He glided for a sustained period (accounts vary between two and ten minutes) before attempting to land.

The landing was the problem. He had, as he later explained, studied the mechanics of taking off but had not accounted for the importance of a tail for landing control. He injured his back on impact and never flew again. But the flight itself was real, witnessed, and documented. Ibn Firnas concluded his analysis precisely: he needed a tail.

The first modern glider based on aerodynamic theory was built by Sir George Cayley in 1853, nearly a thousand years after ibn Firnas.

Other inventions:

• Clear glass: Ibn Firnas developed a process for manufacturing colourless glass and invented corrective lenses (reading stones) making him an early pioneer in optics
• Rock crystal cutting: He developed a process for cutting and polishing rock crystal, ending al-Andalus's dependence on Egypt for cut quartz
• Planetarium: He constructed a mechanised planetarium in his home, complete with simulated thunder, lightning, and moving celestial bodies
• Armillary sphere: He built the first armillary sphere in Europe for astronomical calculation
• Water clock: He constructed an accurate water-driven clock

The Silence Around His Achievement

The Wright Brothers' first powered flight in 1903 is universally celebrated as the beginning of aviation history. Ibn Firnas's 875 CE glider flight is absent from standard aviation history. The account comes primarily from al-Maqqari, a 17th-century Moroccan scholar writing about 9th-century events, some centuries removed from the event itself. While widely accepted in Arab historical tradition, the primary documentation is limited, and this caveat should be noted alongside the achievement.

The writer John Harding, in Flying's Strangest Moments, identifies ibn Firnas's flight as the first attempt at heavier-than-air flight in aviation history. The International Astronomical Union named a crater on the Moon after him in 1976. Baghdad International Airport was renamed Ibn Firnas Airport.

Leonardo da Vinci's aviation sketches (1485–1490 CE) came 600 years after ibn Firnas. Roger Bacon's theoretical discussion of flying machines came 400 years after him. Whether these figures had access to documentation of ibn Firnas's work through Arabic scholarly networks remains an open question.