Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Otto Lilienthal

Quote by Otto Lilienthal

“Artificial flight may be defined as that form of aviation in which a man flies at will in any direction by means of an apparatus attached to his body, the use of which requires personal skill. Artificial flight by a single individual is the proper beginning for all species of artificial flight, as the necessary conditions can most easily be fulfilled when man flies individually.”

Quote by Otto Lilienthal

Author

Otto Lilienthal
Otto Lilienthal

Otto Lilienthal, born on May 23, 1848 and died on August 10, 1896, was a renowned aviation pioneer from Germany. He is often referred to as the 'Father of Flight' and is recognized as the first person to successfully perform controlled glides with a mechanical device. more

You May Also Like

“Particular honour belongs to those who believed in the possibility of mechanical flight when all the world was against them; not the visionaries because they hoped for it merely, but those who by sheer force of intellect perceived the means by which it could be accomplished and directed their experiments along the right path. ... The name of Lilienthal is now among the most honoured, but curiously his own countrymen were the last to recognize the value of his work.”

“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.”