Monday, August 9, 2021

Fell With a Flying Machine -- August 9, 2021

 

San Francisco Call, 13-August-1896

Otto Lilienthal was a German engineer and a veteran of the Franco-Prussian who was devoted to studying and eventually to copying the flight of birds. He built gliders and made a successful series of flights that were all well documented. 125 years ago today, on 09-August-1896, he lost control and dived into the ground, where he fractured his spine. He died the next day. 

His writings and photographs influenced many students of flight, including the Wright Brothers. 

FELL WITH A. FLYING MACHINE.
Fatal Accident to an Almost Successful
Inventor.

BERLIN, Germany, Aug. 12.— Herr Lilienthal, an engineer, who for many years has experimented in the building of flying machines, met with an accident yesterday that resulted in his death. He started with one of his machines, to fly from a hill to Rhinow, near Berlin. The apparatus worked all right for a few minutes, and Lilienthal flew quite a distance, when suddenly the machinery of the apparatus got out of order and man and machine fell to the ground. Lilienthal was so badly injured that he died in the hospital to which he was removed.

lilienthal-museum.de


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