Otto Lilienthal, The 'Flying Man'

Otto Lilienthal getting ready for a test flight with one of his glider designs, circa 1894. Lilienthal pioneered many glider designs throughout his life and was known as the ‘flying man’. Photo by Ottomar Anschütz.

I have yet to come across a history of flight that doesn’t include Otto Lilienthal. Known as the ‘Flying Man’, Lilienthal was a pioneer of aviation best known for his experiments with gliders and human flight. He made thousands of successful test flights throughout his career, and there are myriad photographs of him before and during these test flights. Pictured above is one such photo of him getting ready to make the leap off a hilltop.

Lilienthal was born in 1848 in Prussia. He and his brother Gustav were interested in flight from a young age, watching local birds and studying the movements of their flight. Not long after, the brothers began experimenting with strap-on wings in their teens. These experiments weren’t successful, but they laid the groundwork for a lifetime of invention, experimentation and testing.[1] Otto went on to study engineering, while Gustav became an architect. They would continue to build and test flying machines alongside their professions, however.

Otto Lilienthal in 1891, getting ready to take off with his first flying machine prototype, the Derwitzer glider, named for the area outside Berlin where the flight took place.

Lilienthal began building and testing his flying machines in 1891. His first glider design, pictured above, was called the Derwitzer, since he first tested it in Derwitz, a short distance from Berlin. It had a wingspan of 7.6 meters (25 feet), and he was able to achieve flights of 25 meters (80 feet) with it, making it one of the first successful manned aircraft in human history. Lilienthal went on to build and test many more glider designs, and he began filing patents for his flying machines in the mid-1890s. Pictured below is a patent he received in 1895 for a glider design, called the Normalsegelapparat, which is German for ‘Normal soaring apparatus’. The design clearly evolved from the Derwitzer, with refinements and streamlining throughout.

Otto Lilienthal’s patent drawing for his flying machine, issued in 1895. The glider was called the Normalsegelapparat, which is German for ‘Normal Soaring Apparatus’. The drawings show a winged glider with a single operator sitting in the center, with his legs dangling under the craft.

Lilienthal built and sold at least nine Normalsegelapparats, making it the first known aircraft to be serially produced. The photo below shows him flying one of them from an artificial hill that he built for his tests. The Normalsegelapparat had a wingspan of 6.7 meters (22 feet), and Lilienthal was able to regularly achieve flights of 250 meters (820 feet) with it.

Otto Lilienthal in mid-flight, testing his Normalsegelapparat glider, circa 1895.

The Normalsegelapparat was later developed into a biplane, called the Doppeldecker, which is German for ‘Biplane’. Lilienthal developed the biplane in order to increase wing area without increasing wingspan. There were two versions, a small and a large model, and he first began flying them in 1895, making them the first successful man-carrying biplanes in history. Pictured below is Lilienthal flying one of his biplane gliders in 1895, floating delicately above the landscape below.

Otto Lilienthal flying one of his biplane gliders in 1895. The craft was called Doppeldecker, which is German for ‘Biplane’.

The story of Otto Lilienthal is one full of innovation and firsts for humanity, but unfortunately it ends like so many others who pioneered human flight. He died while flying one of this glider designs on 9 August 1896, when he stalled and subsequently crashed. The craft stalled because it pitched forward, causing it to quickly descend. He was unable to regain control because the glider relied on Lilienthal to shift his weight in order to steer it, making a forward pitch difficult to recover from.[2]

Lilienthal’s tombstone includes the inscription Opfer müssen gebracht werden, which means ‘Sacrifices must be made’. This would make an apt tagline for the entire history of human flight, since so many have lost their lives in the pursuit of achieving it. There are great risks associated with making humans fly, and it takes a true pioneer to take the kind of leap that Lilienthal repeatedly made throughout his life. His work includes many firsts for humanity, and the surviving photographs of his flights reminds us of the fragility and vulnerability that comes with lifting the human body off the ground.

Read more about other ideas for flying machines here.


[1]: Lilienthal, Gustav. “The Evolution.” In Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation, xi-xxiv. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1911.

[2]: Lilienthal, Otto. Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1911.