The Invention Of The Airplane

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imitated by different systems on a fixed-wing craft. Lilienthal began his work on heavier-than-air craft not by developing a complete airplane, but instead by focusing his efforts on a fixed-wing glider.
Lilienthal brought a much-needed respectability to the enterprise of inventing an airplane. Up to that point, efforts to invent airplanes were considered to be the province of crackpots and wild-eyed dreamers. But when a hard-headed German engineer entered the game, other respectable people were soon to follow.

In addition to the respectability he brought to the field, Lilienthal made two more important contributions to the nascent field of airplane invention: the style of perfecting a glider before attempting powered flight (which Gibbs-Smith refers to as the 'airman' approach), and a table of the lift provided by curved wings. Lilienthal was killed in a gliding accident August 10, 1896.

Following in Lilienthal's footsteps, efforts to invent an airplane became commonplace in ...

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as well as the group as a whole. The positive slope of the Wright brothers indicates a steady progression in the ability of their heavier-than-air craft. Once details of the Wrights methods became public when their patent was issued in late 1905, other inventors quickly copied the important discoveries of the Wright brothers, and developed airplanes as capable as those of the Wrights.

Against this backdrop, we see the Wright brothers efforts to develop an airplane, plotted in green on Figure 1. The Wrights first craft in 1900 was approximately equal to the best that had been done prior to that time. They made steady progress in 1901 and 1902. The 1902 glider was the first truly ...

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