This is a list of aviation-related events occurring before the end of the 17th century (on 31 December 1700): Antiquity Greek myth of Icarus and Daedalus explores the desire to fly and the inherent dangers of it. c. 1000 BC Flying chariots called Vimanas are mentioned in the Vedas. c. 850 BC Legendary King Bladud attempts to fly over the city of Trinavantum, but falls to his death. c. 500 BC The Chinese start to use kites. c. 400 BC The Chinese invent an early form of the Bamboo-copter using feathers. The Greek mathematician Archytas of Tarentum demonstrates an artificial pigeon on a wire. It may have been a kite. c. 200 BC The Chinese invent the sky lantern, the first hot air balloon: from its military use it became known as the Kongming lantern. c. 100 AD When Wang Mang tried to recruit a specialist scout to Xiong Nu, a man binding himself with bird feathers glides about 100 meters. Middle Ages c. 559 Yuan Huangtou, Ye, first manned kite glide to take off from a tower. c. 875 According to a 17th century historian, Abbas Ibn Firnas of the Emirate of Córdoba attempted flight using feathers and wings. c. 1003 Jauhari attempts flight by some apparatus from the roof of a mosque in Nishapur, Khorasan, Iran, and falls to his death as a result. c. 1010 Eilmer of Malmesbury builds a wooden glider and, launching from a bell tower, glides 200 metres. c. 1165 During a lavish display of the wonders of the Byzantine Empire by Emperor Manuel I Komnenos in the Hippodrome of Constantinople, a "Turk" attempts to fly by jumping off of one of the central pillars with some form of winged construct, plummeting to his death. c. 1241 The Mongolian army uses lighted kites in the battle of Legnica. c. 1250 Roger Bacon writes the first known technical description of flight, describing an ornithopter design in his book Secrets of Art and Nature. Modern Era c. 1485 – c. 1513 Leonardo da Vinci designs an ornithopter with control surfaces. He envisions and sketches flying machines such as helicopters and parachutes, and notes studies of airflows and streamlined shapes. c. 1500 Hieronymus Bosch shows in his triptych The temptation of St. Anthony, among other things, two fighting airships above a burning town. c. 1558 Giambattista della Porta publishes a theory and a construction manual for a