ANCIENT AIRCRAFT.

Western Star, 14 February 1922, Page 2

ANCIENT AIRCRAFT.

Dr. Ixbal Shah, a pundit of India, states that in his country aeroplanes were familiarly known 24 centuries ago. Representations of ■them, lie says, are found in rock sculptures dating back to 500 B.C. in Southern India. Indeed, so* he declares, n Hying carriages " are apok■?n of in Brahmin boeksj written even earlier than that. A stirring piiece Mf literature, written about 500 1 8.C., tells how llawun, lung of Ceylon, 'lew over an enemy army and! dropped bombs, causing many casualties. Eventually he wa,s Main, and his "flying carriage" fell into the hands of the Hindu chieftain Ramchander, who flew in it all the Way from Ceylon to bis capital at A.judhia, in Northern India. In the. Mahabharatta, one of the oldest of Brahmin classics, mention is nnu'.e of the gift of a Hying machine by a king to a brother monarch, ;■,■; a token of friend-j ship. The bombs s;:oken of in the story of Rawun are called " explosive torches," which, the talc explains, were thrown down upon the heads of the enemy. The method of making these primitive bombs is described in other ancient books; A .pasteboard cylinder 2ft long was filled with a mixture of charcoal, saltpetre, and nitre, to which nails and sharp pieces of glass were added. ■ The fuse, of cocoanut fibre, was ignited before the "torch" was thrown. When the flame from the fuse burned to the body of .the bomb there was? an explosion, terrifying to the enemy.