…an odd wind rises beyond the hills. A storm rolling down the mountainside? I turn to shout another command, when the wind grows to a rhythmic thwump, thwump, thwump, like huge birds of prey catching Andean air in their massive feathered wings. An Inca monster has been awakened? Over the crest behind the remnants of the Emperor’s force, huge beasts ply the air, thwump, thwump, thwump, a steady drone. For a moment, everyone around me stops to take in a sight like none they have ever seen.
Artwork by Ven Locklear
Nazca Hot Air Balloon
You might think hot air balloons during the time of the Inca Empire is solidly in the realm of fantasy. However, an American explorer, Jim Woodman proposed the idea of the Nazca people using hot air balloons to design the Nazca Lines in the sand.
While most likely not the method used by the Nazcas, Woodman convinced Juliann Nott to attempt to build and fly a hot air balloon with materials that would have been available thousands of years ago. Nott notes on his website regarding the project: “When Jim Woodman approached me with his idea that the people who created the Nazca lines could have seen them from hot air balloons I was intrigued but skeptical. Yet we successful(ly) flew in a balloon that could have been built by the Nazca people a thousand years ago. And while I do not see any evidence that the Nazca civilization did fly, it is beyond any doubt that they could have.”
And so the Inca technology Addison encounters combines the theoretically achievable flight of a hot air balloon matched with early Wright Brothers flight. At the top of this blog post, Ven Locklear has recreated the ensuing battle.
Learn more about the Nazca.
See more of Ven Locklear’s art.
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