In this essay, Justin Henry, a 2017-18 CAORC NEH Senior Research Fellow, discusses the origins and implications of Ravana's flying machine, a popular figure in Sri Lankan versions of the Ramayana epic. All photos are courtesy of the author.
https://www.caorc.org/post/2019/06/10/ravanas-mechanical-flying-peacock
“Ravana was a great king of Sri Lanka 8000 years ago,” he went on earnestly. “And, you know, he had an airplane powered by a mercury vortex engine. We had such technology in those days.”
This was not the last that I would hear of Ravana’s flying machine and its “mercury vortex” propulsion . . .
