3 
'"EYE in the SKY" 
INTRODUCTION 
From the dawn of history, man has s-triven to release himself from 
the shackles that made him an Earth-bound creature In Greek mythology, 
we read of that cunning architecht and sculptor, Daedalus, who fashioned 
two pairs of wings from feathers and wax, so that he and his son, Icarus, 
could escape to Sicily from their imprisonment on the island of Crete. 
They flew away with the wings fashioned to their shoulders, but Icarus, 
according to the myth, fell into the sea when the sun melted the wax on 
his wings (Figure 1). 
I 
Retif de la Bretonne, in his work on the subject , provides a pic 
ture of a flying man, with very artistically designed wings, fitting 
exactly to the shoulders, and carrying a basket of provisions suspended 
from his waist (Figure 2). 
History also discloses that, as soon as man could get a "bird's eye 
view" from whatever height he had access to, he climbed and used his eyes 
First, he took advantage of high hills, mountain tops and towers 
and, later on, balloons, birds, kites, rockets and airplanes.