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.