𝗢𝘁𝘁𝗼 𝗟𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗹 was born on May 23rd, 1848 and was a German flight pioneer. He is considered the first person to have repeatedly completed successful flights with gliders, and known for the development of the heavier-than-air flight.
Lilienthal has been fascinated with flying from an early age studying birds and building strap-on wings with his brother, though they didn’t actually fly. He became a design engineer, served in the Franco-Prussian war and worked for several engineering companies before founding his own company building boilers and steam engines.
In 1889, Lilienthal published the book “Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation” and started developing flying machines. His first one was a glider called the “Derwitzer” from 1891. Over the course of his flying career, he built many different flying machines: monoplanes, biplanes, and wing flapping airplanes. Overall, Lilienthal made over 2000 flights in gliders, starting from his own artificial hill or natural hills.
In 1893, he was able to fly 250 meters, a record that was still unbeaten until Lilienthal’s death on August 10th in 1896 after crashing during a flight the day before.
The Wright Brothers knew his research well and took inspiration from it.
Fun Fact: The Tegel airport in Berlin was named “Otto Lilienthal” after him (the airport closed in 2020).
YouTube Playlist
Sources and Resources
- Wiki – Otto Lilienthal (engl)
- Wiki – Otto Lilienthal (dt)
- Lilienthal Museum
- Flying Machines
