Starting in 1891 Otto Lilienthal made the first welldocumented, successful flights on a heavierthanair aircraft under the control of a human being. In 1893 he patented the world’s first production aircraft, the ‘Normalsegelapparat’, a monoplane glider that he sold at least nine times to various places in Europe and America.

He made more than 2000 successful flights and his aerodynamic data and flight reports were circulated around the world. Others enthusiastically took his design, learned from it and then improved it to take flying to the next level. Good examples are here Pilcher, Chanute, the Wrights, Ferber, the Voisins, Zhukovsky and the list goes on.

Samuel Langley as well as Octave Chanute and many others corresponded with Lilienthal. Chanute, author of the other most influential book of that time and later friend of the Wright brothers, followed Lilienthal’s approach of carefully performed flight tests and lead several younger men to successful flights since 1896.


Wright, W., “Otto Lilienthal”, Aero Club of America Bulletin, Sept. 1912 (published posthumously after Wilbur Wright died on May 30 1912).

Lilienthal, O., US Patent for a “Flying Machine” No. 544,816, patented 20th Aug. 1895, based on the German Patent for a “Flugapparat” No. 77916, patented 3rd Sept. 1893.

Lilienthal, O., Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation, 1st ed., 1911 reprinted 2001: ISBN 0938716581. (Translation from German edition, Berlin 1889, „Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst“, reprinted 2003: ISBN 3980902382.)