JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post (Overall Post 5117)
I found an interesting article in Nature1 just now, a piece by Carl Runge on 19th century heavier-than-air human flight by the remarkable Otto Lilienthal.
Lilienthal was an international authority on human flight, and was known to many as The Flying Man, and The Father of Flight, because, well, he flew. And he flew more often and with more recorded/documented successes in his non-powered flying machines than any other aviation pioneer of the time. In fact, he had a major influence on the Wright brothers (though not necessarily for his experimental data, which they abandoned after a while to create their own in their wind tunnel), with Wilbur Wright saying: "Of all the men who attacked the flying problem in the 19th century, Otto Lilienthal was easily the most important. ... It is true that attempts at gliding had been made hundreds of years before him, and that in the nineteenth century, Cayley, Spencer, Wenham, Mouillard, and many others were reported to have made feeble attempts to glide, but their failures were so complete that nothing of value resulted." (From the Wikipedia article on Lilienthal.)
Lilienthal was well into making successful jumps/flights by this time, but would suffer his fatal fall in about two more years, dying August 10, 1896, after a series of 850' flights. (I'm offering a later paper on Lilienthal, also available on ABE, from Nature for 12 December 1894.)
The last three sentences by Runge are remarkable:
"If it [flying or attempting to do so] is taken up by a great many people, improvements of the apparatus are sure to follow, and the art of keeping one's balance in the air will be developed. Perhaps this is the road to flying. At any rate it must be fine sport."
Notes:
1. (LILIENTHAL, Otto). Runge, C. "Experiments on Flying", in Nature, a Weekly Illustrated Journal of Science, 14 December 1893, volume 49 no. 1259, pp 145-168, with the Runge article on pp 157-8, with three photo illustrations of Lilienthal in flight.
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