Diego Marín Aguilera

Diego Marín Aguilera
Error creating thumbnail:
Born	1757 (1757) Coruña del Conde, Spain
Died	1800 (aged 42–43) Coruña del Conde, Spain
Occupation	Inventor

Diego Marín Aguilera (Coruña del Conde, 1757 – Coruña del Conde, October 11, 1800) was a Spanish inventor known for being the first man to make an effective flight with artificial wings, and one of the forerunners of aeronautical science in the world.

There is controversy over whether the first man to make a flight with artificial wings was in fact Abbas ibn Firnas, who in 875 in Córdoba managed to stay in the air for about ten seconds with wooden wings he had made, although his attempt was less well documented, which makes a precise assessment of his success and techniques difficult.

Life and vocation

Error creating thumbnail:

Castle of Coruña del Conde and the airplane commemorating the Spanish aviation pioneer Diego Marín Aguilera

The son of Narciso and Carolina, middling farmers and livestock raisers, the death of his father left the eldest son, Diego, in charge of seven siblings, which heightened his sense of responsibility and the enterprising character of which he gave ample proof.

Extremely ingenious and endowed with great natural intelligence, Diego devised small inventions with which he made his neighbors' work easier: a device to improve the operation of the mill that still stands on the Arandilla, another for fulling mills and water mills, and another for sawing marble from the quarries of Espejón.

Diego Marín and aviation

Monument commemorating Diego Marín Aguilera's flight in 1793.

Because of his interest in the mechanics of wind in mills, Diego Marín conceived the idea of being able to fly like the birds, and during the hours he spent in the fields herding and farming he studied the steady, serene flight of the eagles that soared above the crenellated tower of the castle. Thus the idea matured of building a heavier-than-air apparatus to carry a person. He set traps to catch eagles and vultures in order to study their wings and obtain their feathers, with which he built a flying apparatus. He carefully studied the movement of the wings and tails of the birds and calculated the proportion of body weight to their length.

He also studied the mechanics of windmills and struck up a friendship with the village blacksmith, who would help him create the parts to make substantial improvements to them and to devise and carry out the inventions he would develop throughout his life to build fulling mills, water mills, marble-sawing machines and countless hand tools. With the blacksmith's help he prepared the frame and some wrought-iron joints for the wings, which gave them a certain fan-like movement, and some sockets or stirrups into which the feet were to be fitted, thus building an enormous bird-machine after six years of intense work.

On the night of May 15, 1793, accompanied by his confidant Joaquín Barbero and Barbero's sister, they placed the great feathered airplane on the highest crag of the castle, and from there he set off on his flight, saying: "I am going to Burgo de Osma, from there to Soria, and I will return in a few days". He reached a height of "five to six varas" above the starting point, indeed heading toward Burgo de Osma, until he landed on the other side of the river after covering a distance of "431 Castilian varas" (about 360 meters). The reason for the quick landing was the breakage of one of the bolts that moved the wings.

The next morning, when the residents of Coruña woke up and learned what had happened on that emotional night in May, they mocked their fellow villager Diego Marín, believing him mad, and set fire to the feathered apparatus to keep him from continuing with his madness. When Diego Marín went to demand compensation for the destruction, the Inquisition considered the villagers' action to be good, as it prevented Diego from injuring himself again, and he was likewise advised to cease his mechanical activities, under threat of an accusation of heresy. Marín, too poor to hire a defense and unable to explain where he had acquired the knowledge for his feat, had to abandon not only his project of flying, but from then on he also refrained from undertaking any other.

Six years later he died in his native village at the age of 44, sunk in depression and sadness, treated as a madman and as possessed by the devil, watched for possible heresy, the object of mockery, jokes and disdain from the very neighbors who would continue to benefit from his creations for decades after his passing.

Trivia

• Since May 2009, Burgos Airport has had a plaque in tribute to Diego Marín and his feat.
• In his native village there was an airplane, a monument from the Spanish Air Force to Diego Marín, forerunner of aviation.
• The television program Al filo de lo imposible made a program commemorating Diego Marín Aguilera on the occasion of the bicentennial of Diego Marín's flight.
• There is a 90-minute film about this figure and his feat titled "La fabulosa historia de Diego Marín", shot in 1996 in the natural settings of his life.
• The City of Burgos named a Secondary Education Institute after this pioneer.
• Alex Rozados and Sergio Izquierdo Betete created a comic recounting his feats titled "Memorias del Hombre Pájaro". [1]

See also

• History of aviation
• Timeline of aviation
• Abbas ibn Firnas

External links

• La primera máquina que voló: Diego Marín de Aguilera in La Soga Revista Cultural (in Spanish)
• Unveiling of the Commemorative Plaque at Burgos Airport (in Spanish)