Matias Fernandez

Sakara Bird

One way to know for sure if the Sakara bird from 200 BCE is a model of a plane is to test it, but the ancient Museum in Cairo would unlikely let one fly around like a toy. So glider designer Martin Gregory built a similar model of balsa wood and concluded that even with the missing tail plane, the plane wasn't much of a flyer. An aerodynamics expert tested it in weather conditions similar to those in Egypt and was impressed with the little plane's abilities. If the Sakara bird from 200 BCE is a model of a plane, it would be an example of an upart - an out-of-place artifact that's way ahead of its time in terms of technology or history.