The Flight of Icarus

[Johnny Rico]

Now this may not sound like a Science & Technology topic at first, but hear me out.

OK, first of all let's quickly review the story of the Flight of Icarus. Icarus was stranded on an island in the Aegean Sea and in order to get off, he built himself a pair of wings out of wax. So he took off soaring high into the sky and according to the legend/myth he flew too close to the sun and the wings melted and he plummeted to the sea and ultimately to his death.

OK, now we all know that's impossible for obvious reasons. The sun is 93 million miles away. And second, as he would rise in altitude the temperature gets colder, not warmer. So if anything, his wings would freeze up and probably break due to brittleness.

So my question is this, (assuming the legend/myth is true)...what do you think actually happened?

Lightning strike perhaps?


PS. I saw this story on a "birth of flight" show on TV the otherday, hell, may have been on the NASA channel.

 

[Deleted 2]

Well, wax doesn't have a particularly high melting point. At high altitudes, the pressure would be even lower. Sunlight would be more intense, but the outside temperature would be much, much lower.

So maybe he flew really fast, and it was the friction that melted his wings?

BTW, It wasn't Icarus himself, but rather his dad Daedalus who fashioned the wings out of wax.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Johnny Rico said:
Icarus was stranded on an island in the Aegean Sea and in order to get off, he built himself a pair of wings out of wax.

Well for starters you've got your story wrong, Icarus wasnt trapped on a desert island and Icarus didnt build himself any wings, his father Daedalus was the one who built the wings and gave Icarus a pair himself so they could both escape the Labrynth where they were imprisoned by king minos of crete.

As for the wax melting, perhaps he set off flying early in the morning as the sun was rising and as the sun got higher in the sky the temperature rose and it was a very hot summers day so the wax melted.

OR

perhaps it was a very cloudy day and as he flew higher and higher he flew above the cloud cover and got the full rays of the suin which melted the wax with it being a very hot summers day, perhaps they were suffering a heat wave at the time.

ALSO

you've got to wonder where the wax came from, perhaps he had to use ear wax stored up over a number of years to make the wings and ear wax melts very easy in heat so that was his downfall.

 

[Luckyflux]

Johnny Rico said:

So my question is this, (assuming the legend/myth is true)...what do you think actually happened?

His arms got tired from flapping???

 

[Johnny Rico]

Fire said:

Johnny Rico said:
Icarus was stranded on an island in the Aegean Sea and in order to get off, he built himself a pair of wings out of wax.

Well for starters you've got your story wrong, Icarus wasnt trapped on a desert island and Icarus didnt build himself any wings, his father Daedalus was the one who built the wings and gave Icarus a pair himself so they could both escape the Labrynth where they were imprisoned by king minos of crete.

Oh that's right...I stand corrected.

As for the wax melting, perhaps he set off flying early in the morning as the sun was rising and as the sun got higher in the sky the temperature rose and it was a very hot summers day so the wax melted.

But still, the higher you go on any kind of day, it gets cooler, not warmer. Snow-capped mountains year round, ring a bell?

Even in the Med, as he would have climbed, which I'm guessing by just the pure reality and physics of it all, probably wasn't more than a few hundred feet if that. Just the fact that these people back then would have seen any kind of human flight to be unworldly, lends creedance to that he was probably struck by lightning and instantly fried.

OR

perhaps it was a very cloudy day and as he flew higher and higher he flew above the cloud cover and got the full rays of the suin which melted the wax with it being a very hot summers day, perhaps they were suffering a heat wave at the time.

ALSO

you've got to wonder where the wax came from, perhaps he had to use ear wax stored up over a number of years to make the wings and ear wax melts very easy in heat so that was his downfall.

Where he got the wax is indeed a very interesting question. Perhaps there were some Ommish candle makers there and he borrowed some.

 

[Zachary Smith]

Wind shear; it happened before doppler radar.

 

[Ariadne]

He would have been getting lots of exercise, that would have added added a bit of heat.

 

[anti-matter]

The sweat from flapping his arms loosened the straps holding the wings catastrophically changing the wings angle of attack. .