Eilmer of Malmesbury

Eilmer of Malmesbury (also known as Oliver due to a scribe's miscopying, or Elmer, or Æthelmær) was an 11th-century English Benedictine monk best known for his early attempt at a gliding flight using wings.

[1] Later scholars, such as the American historian of technology Lynn White, have attempted to estimate Eilmer's date of birth based on a quotation in William's Deeds about Halley's Comet, which appeared in 1066.

Thus, Eilmer fixed wings to his hands and feet and launched himself from the top of a tower at Malmesbury Abbey: He was a man learned for those times, of ripe old age, and in his early youth had hazarded a deed of remarkable boldness.

He had by some means, I scarcely know what, fastened wings to his hands and feet so that, mistaking fable for truth, he might fly like Daedalus, and, collecting the breeze upon the summit of a tower, flew for more than a furlong [201 metres].

However, being unable to balance himself forward and backwards, as does a bird by slight movements of its wings, head and legs, he would have needed a large tail to maintain equilibrium.

"[8] Other than William's account of the flight, nothing has survived of Eilmer's lifetime work as a monk, although his astrological treatises apparently still circulated as late as the 16th century.

[10] The School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, has developed a Computational Fluid Dynamics simulation code named Eilmer4.