Lilienthals Glider - SCALE WOOD-FIBER

“To fly like a bird,” has been a dream of humankind since ancient times. From the cautionary tale of Icarus, with his wings of feathers and wax, to the ingenious flying machines of Leonardo da Vinci, the reality of human flight remained an elusive dream. Imagine then, being one of a small group of people gathered at the base of a man-made hill in Prussia (Germany), on a sunny cloudless morning. At the top of the 50 ft hill stands a man wearing an unusual winged contraption upon his shoulders. Taking note of the wind direction and velocity, he runs forward a few feet and then—the man, incredibly, is flying! Though British scientist and inventor Sir George Cayley is credited with the first manned glider flight in 1853, the Prussian Otto Lilienthal is regarded as the world’s first successful aviator, completing over 2,000 safe flights before his death as a result of a crash in 1896. Years before these remarkable flights Lilienthal devoted himself to the problem of heavier-than-air flight by first studying the flight of birds and the structure of their wings, resulting in the seminal book “Bird Flight as the Basis of Aviation,” published in 1889. The meticulous research provided by Lilienthal to future aviators became a great inspiration for Wilbur and Orville Wright, while his tragic death galvanised them into action.