Otto Lilienthal - pioneer for modern air traffic

Otto Lilienthal is considered the first successful aviator of mankind. The aviation pioneer, who died from his passion, completed more than 2,000 flight attempts:during a flight on August 9, 1896, the native of Anklamer crashed.

by Stefanie Grossmann

"One almost wants to give the impression that the stork was specially created to stimulate the desire to fly in us and to serve as a teacher in this art." Otto Lilienthal repeatedly interspersed poetic lines in his "Classical Texts on Science" about flying. He was fascinated by the flying skills of birds, which he used as a model for his experiments. In the 19th century, Otto Lilienthal was considered an aviation pioneer:his research into the principle of "heavier than air" flight, the concept of wings and his gliding flights formed the basis for the construction of modern commercial aircraft. Many of his findings from theory and practice are still valid today.

Flight attempts already play a role in childhood

Karl Wilhelm Otto Lilienthal was born in Anklam on May 23, 1848, the first of eight children. His father, the draper Gustav Lilienthal, is a mathematically and technically gifted man. As a businessman he is rather less successful. Mother Caroline studied music in Dresden and Berlin. Shortly before Otto's 13th birthday, his father suddenly dies. Despite financial difficulties, the mother tries to give her children a good education. From 1856 Otto and his brother Gustav, who was one year younger, attended high school in Anklam. Even at this time, the brothers are meticulously studying the flight of birds, and they are also involved in flight tests and experiments. At the age of 14, Otto Lilienthal was already building wings that could be strapped to the arms and attempted to fly for the first time. Otto and Gustav are closely linked through projects and inventions throughout their lives.

Otto Lilienthal publishes the first paper on bird flight

Otto Lilienthal continued to experiment during his further training period in Potsdam, first at the provincial trade school and later at the royal trade academy. Among other things, he tests the air resistance with a wing flapping apparatus. There was a brief interruption in 1870 when he voluntarily went to war between Prussia and France. From 1871 he was employed in various companies as a design engineer. In 1873 the Lilienthal brothers joined the "Royal Society for Aviation", which was based in London. In the same year, Otto Lilienthal published a first essay on the theory of bird flight in the Potsdam trade association. In 1874, the brothers carried out experiments with kites, discovering the advantages of slightly curved wing surfaces for the first time.

Practice poses challenges for the aviation pioneer

From 1889 Otto Lilienthal kept four storks for study purposes in the garden of his house in Berlin-Lichterfelde. He realizes that air movement is slower beneath the birds than above them - and this creates lift. He builds his experiments on this theoretical basis. This is followed by standing and running exercises with a flying machine in open terrain. You can only learn to fly if you practice it, practice it "without breaking your neck"; But that only succeeds "if one understands how to fly," Lilienthal wrote in 1889 in the introductory chapter of "Der Vogelflug als Basis der Fliegekunst". But putting theory into practice is a major challenge for the aviation pioneer. Otto Lilienthal solves the problem with a formula that has been handed down as "from step to leap, from leap to flight". He first practices standing against the wind, then jumping from a diving board in his garden before he dares to take the first slope - and in 1891 he glides around 20 meters through the air. In a sand pit near Berlin-Steglitz, he undertook flight exercises with a range of up to 80 meters. And on the Gollenberg near Rhinow, Otto Lilienthal even flies up to 250 meters in gliding flights. It can reach speeds of up to 50 kilometers per hour.

All in all, Otto Lilienthal completed more than 2,000 flight tests in his flying life, also with his normal glider developed in 1893. He controls the glider made of fabric-covered willow wood with a wingspan of 6.70 meters by shifting his weight. It is the first mass-produced aircraft in history, which the aviation pioneer produces in his own machine factory and sells for 500 marks.

Otto Lilienthal had an accident on a flight hill in Havelland

On August 9, 1896, Otto Lilienthal climbed the 110 meter high Gollenberg in Havelland, as he had done so often. He has already carried out countless test flights here. But on this sunny summer day, the experienced pilot underestimates the thermals - warm air rises up the slope, and the 48-year-old is hit by a gust of wind. His glider begins to spin, can no longer be steered and then hits the ground vertically without braking. "I just have to rest a bit, then we'll continue," Otto Lilienthal is said to have said after the impact. But when he was transported to the Berlin university clinic, he fell into a coma and finally died a day later from his injuries.

Role model for aviation pioneers like the Wright brothers

Otto Lilienthal is remembered as a flight pioneer and visionary:in 1894 he wrote in a letter of his conviction that the possibility of free flight would lead to "a change in all of our conditions". In it he also prophesies "global air traffic" as a supposed effect of the success of his efforts. After his death, Otto Lilienthal was initially forgotten in his own country, but he inspired other aviation pioneers such as the Wright brothers. "Of all those who dealt with the problem of flight in the 19th century, Otto Lilienthal was undoubtedly the most important," writes Wilbur Wright in an essay published posthumously in September 1912 in the "Aero Club of America Bulletin".