Karl Wilhelm Otto Lilienthal was a German aviation pioneer and designer. During his lifetime he built 18 types of gliders (15 monoplanes and 3 biplanes), which were fully controllable, unlike the models of his predecessors. The first controllable glider was the Derwitzer in 1891, named after the town of Derwitz, near which it was tested. From that year until his death, he made around 2,000 flights. He was involved in the development of gliders with his brother Gustav.

The brothers started building their first glider in June 1890. The Möve Nr.1 had a wingspan of 11 metres and a wing depth of 1.40 metres. The height of the profile corresponded to the previously established values of bird wings - 1/12 to 1/15 of the depth. The machine was difficult to handle and Gustav destroyed it during one of his flights. Otto judged that the glider needed to be stabilized with a rudder and quickly built a test aircraft Nr.2, which already had both tail surfaces in their present form – vertical and horizontal.

After a serie of successful flights in the spring and summer of 1896, Lilienthal, accompanied by his assistant Beylich, went to the Stöln hill on August 9 to make the last flights in a monoplane Nr.11, as he had almost completed the new aircraft. On the fourth flight of altitude of 30 metres, the glider suddenly raised its nose and almost stopped in mid-air. Lilienthal had dealt with such situations in his previous flights and reacted by swinging his legs forward to gain the necessary speed. However, he apparently shifted his centre of gravity too far forward, which proved fatal. As a result of the manoeuvre, the glider plummeted steeply downwards, the pilot failed to level the flight and crashed into the ground.

Just after the crash, he told his assistant: "It could have been worse, that can be avoided in the future. I'll wake up and we'll go on flying." And then to his brother Gustav, just before he died: "Something has to be sacrificed."

Source: Wikipedia

Original

Length:
5,30 m

Width:
6,80 m

Height:
1,10 m

State:
Germany

Model 1:1,35

Length:
3,90 m

Width:
5,00 m

Height:
0,80 m