History of Flight

The first person to plan and build a practical manned glider that can fly over long distances, is a German engineer named Otto Lilienthal. Studying aerodynamics, on 1891 he concentrated his efforts on building a glider that can fly. Otto Lilienthal was captivated by the thought that one day there would be manned flying machines. On 1889, he published a book on aerodynamics. This book was conceptualized from his studies of birds in flight. The Wright Brothers later on referred to this book to build their successful aircraft. Otto Lilienthal died tragically in a plane crash. Strong winds made him lose control of the craft causing it to crash back to earth. This happened after his 2,500th flight. Another milestone in flight history is on 1891, when the aerodrome flew to nearly a mile after exhausting its fuel. The aerodrome's inventor is Samuel Langley. He is a physicist and astronomer; he recognized that power was needed in man's quest for flight. This was his greatest contribution to flight, putting up a power plant to a glider. His experiments with whirling arms and steam powered engine resulted in a plane model he called aerodrome. Langley received a grant of $50,000, which was purposely given for creating a full sized aerodrome. This plane crashed because it was too heavy. Langley gave up his dreams of flight because of this disappointment. Langley was a director of the Smithsonian institute in Washington, D. C.