Otto Lilienthal

Born: 1848 | Died: 1896

Scientist

Otto Lilienthal was born in Anklam close to the Baltic Sea in northeastern Germany. Today, he is called the first successful aviator in the history of mankind. With his fundamental research on birds and airfoils, he founded the science of wing aerodynamics and laid the foundations for concepts still employed today and is said to have influenced the Wright Brothers and their design.

After Lilienthal visited the Royal Technical Academy in Berlin (1867 -1870), he started his first experiments about the physicsof human flight. Lilienthal fought as a volunteer in the Franco-Prussian War (1870/71). Later on he worked as an engineer for various companies in Berlin and continued his research and publication on human aviation. In 1891 he succeeded in the first flight over 800 feet with a glider. He received more public attention three years later for a successful flight with a glider from the Volkstheater in Berlin. Lilienthal wrote several scientific works that laid the foundation for human aviation such as "Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation" (1889).