While still an engineering student in 1867, Lilienthal began to experiment with aerodynamics and human flight. He spent a year in an on-the-job training program at the Berlin Trade School, then three years at the Royal Technical Academy in Berlin. Lilienthal became a professional design engineer, but aerospace studies remained a hobby and a passion. From 1864 to 1866, Lilienthal studied mechanics at the Regional Technical School in Potsdam. In elementary school, Lilienthal's curriculum included bird studies. At any early age, the two boys began to observe the movements of birds to try to understand the mechanisms of flight. Together with his brother Gustav, Lilienthal developed an interest in flying. Otto Lilienthal was born in Anklam, Prussia, on May 23, 1848. Among his notes, lectures, and other writings he left information that proved invaluable to subsequent aircraft designers, including Wilbur and Orville Wright. Lilienthal died tragically from injuries sustained in one of his flight experiments. ![]() ![]() His efforts won international attention, and experts worldwide consulted him for assistance. Eventually, Lilienthal achieved flight distances as high as 1,150 feet (350.75 meters) with his more sophisticated gliders. His first crude aviation design was a simple pair of wings with which he attempted to gain altitude by jumping from a board. During his lifetime he accumulated 20 patents for his machine designs, including four for aviation devices. His hope was to further the quest to achieve manned flight. Yet Prussian design engineer Otto Lilienthal disregarded the social stigma associated with flying machine inventors and applied himself in earnest to the study of aerodynamic forces and design concepts. ![]() His work directly inspired Orville and Wilbur Wright.ĭuring the early days of the Industrial Revolution, notions of human flight were ridiculed. Lilienthal flew thousands of flights on gliders he designed based on careful observations of birds. With the design and construction of his first working glider, Otto Lilienthal (1848-1896) bestowed a sense of viability and respectability on the young science of aviation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |