Ancient artisans' fascination with flight gave rise to these early ideas and inventions. The earliest traces o…
Ancient artisans' fascination with flight gave rise to these early ideas and inventions. The earliest traces of this dream can be found in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, when Gongshu Ban and Mozi were said to have experimented with flying devices. That fascination never faded. The Book of the Later Han records that Zhang Heng built a mechanical bird that could fly for several miles, while the Book of Han says that during Wang Mang's reign, a gifted artisan made a great bird that could fly several hundred paces before falling.