Otto Lilienthal
German aviation pioneer (1848-1896) · Germany · Scientists · Died at 48
Otto Lilienthal is read about 490 times a day, in 58 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 8 October 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 383 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?He strapped wings to his back and jumped off hills two thousand times before the Wright brothers ever left the ground. The photographs - a man suspended in air, arms wide, 1890s Berlin below - made flight look not like a dream but like something you could build in a workshop and take outside.
Also in Deutsch
Photos 8
In their own words 10
, I, too, have made it a lifelong task of mine to add a cultural element to my work, which should result in uniting countries and reconciling their people.
All flight is based upon producing air pressure, all flight energy consists in overcoming air pressure.
The increasing size of the apparatus makes the construction more difficult in securing lightness in the machine; therefore the building of small apparatus is to be recommended.
Awards
In their orbit 2
About this person
Karl Wilhelm Otto Lilienthal was born in Prussia on 23 May 1848 and grew obsessed with the mechanics of bird flight. In 1891 he began leaping from hills near Berlin in gliders of his own design, refining the shape of the modern wing through repeated trial. Newspapers ran photographs of him airborne, shifting public opinion from skepticism to belief that heavier-than-air machines could work. His Normalsegelapparat went into series production, making his Maschinenfabrik the first airplane factory on earth. On 9 August 1896 his glider stalled at fifteen metres; he fell, broke his neck, and died the next day. The Wright brothers kept his photograph on their workshop wall.
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