Otto Lilienthal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In a recent comment, Bela included a quote from Otto Lilienthal. For any aviation enthusiast or student of Victorian history, his biography is worth a look....

Otto Lilienthal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Otto Lilienthal (born 23 May 1848 in Anklam, Province of Pomerania – died 10 August 1896 in Berlin) was a pioneer of human aviation who became known as the German "Glider King". He was the first person to make repeated successful gliding flights. He followed an experimental approach first established earlier in the century by Sir George Cayley. Newspapers and magazines in many countries published photographs of Lilienthal gliding, favorably influencing public and scientific opinion about the possibility of flying machines becoming practical reality after ages of idle fantasy and unscientific tinkering.

"To invent an airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything."

—Lilienthal

A quote from Wilbur Wright....

"Of all the men who attacked the flying problem in the 19th century, Otto Lilienthal was easily the most important. ... It is true that attempts at gliding had been made hundreds of years before him, and that in the nineteenth century, Cayley, Spencer, Wenham, Mouillard, and many others were reported to have made feeble attempts to glide, but their failures were so complete that nothing of value resulted."

—Wilbur Wright

Otto Lilienthal

Otto Lilienthal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia