How did Otto lilienthal made an attempt to fly?
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Otto Lilienthal and the first successful gliding flights in human history
Born on 23 May 1848 in Anklam in Western Pomerania, Karl Wilhelm Otto Lilienthal developed his enthusiasm for the dream of flight early in his life. The son of a technically gifted businessman, Gustav Lilienthal, Otto began his first attempts at flight with his younger brother, Gustav, while both were still at school. The Lilienthal brothers drew significant inspiration for their early theoretical and experimental work from observing birds in flight and the mathematical teachings of the leading astronomer, Gustav Spörer.
After Lilienthal finished his studies at the provincial commercial school in Potsdam, he completed an apprenticeship at the Schwartzkopff Machine Tool factory in Berlin. At the same time, he and his brother began to build their first experimental apparatus to examine the way that birds generate lift by flapping their wings. As his experiments failed to lift masses greater than around 40 kg, Lilienthal consequently focused on experimenting on air currents without beating wings. A scholarship at the Berlin Trade Academy eventually made it possible for the ambitious aviation pioneer to intensify his investigations into the relationship between airflow and lift.
Over the next few years, Otto and Gustav Lilienthal repeatedly attempted to build a profitable business with a variety of different patents. The brothers’ product development activities were in no way restricted to aviation; from a hot air motor to a cutting machine for the mining industry, through to a system of building blocks for children, Otto and Gustav developed numerous technical products, though the big breakthrough remained elusive at first. Only in 1881, when they registered a patent for a tubular boiler, making it possible to operate steam boilers safely, and the related invention of the Lilienthals’ compact engine resulted in an economic success, resulting in the world’s first series production of aircraft in 1894.
As early as 1874, Otto Lilienthal had taken an extensive series of measurements of lift in curved surfaces. With the publication of his book, "Bird Flight as the Basis of Aviation” in 1889, Lilienthal eventually moved on to practical experiments in gliding flight. Starting out with standing exercises and jumps in the garden of his home, before moving on to sand dunes and small hills and to the “Fliegerberg” or “Flying Mountain” in Berlin, the aviation pioneer moved on to more and more spectacular challenges. The exact number of gliding flights undertaken by Lilienthal has not been accurately documented, but experts estimate it to be at least 2,000.
Otto Lilienthal died on 9 August 1896, in Stölln am Gollenberg, at the age of 48. A decade later, the Wright brothers repeatedly referred to the substantial contribution made by the German engineer to the development of the first powered flight. As a sign of the importance they placed on his work, the Wright Brothers sent Lilienthal’s widow a check for a thousand dollars in 1911.