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Страна: Германия

Год: 1891

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A.Andrews. The Flying Machine: Its Evolution through the Ages (Putnam)

Although Lilienthal’s achievement was always in hang-gliding - supporting himself by arms and elbows and letting his body swing to change the trim of his machine - he wanted eventually to fly, not soar. From the age of 21, in 1869, he had committed himself to the flapping ornithopter. He built fixed-wing gliders only to apprentice himself in the mastery of the air and the irregularities of the wind. To the same end he closely studied bird flight and the structure and shape of bird wings. He rediscovered the screwing action of the outer primary feathers by which the bird pulls itself forward and, perhaps impatiently, tried to duplicate this action with individual artificial feathers powered as propellers by a 2hp carbonic acid (compressed) gas motor. He was constantly building new machines, each one designed to possess improved stability.
   In 1895 he decided to concentrate on biplane gliders, in which the required wing area, being nearer the longitudinal axis, was handier in control. But while he was actually gliding he could make relatively little adjustment - that is, coax little positive response from the machine in flight. He had a certain control over pitch by swinging his body backwards and forwards to alter the centre of gravity of the glider, and he countered roll by swinging his body to the side. He did build into his later machines an upwards-hingeing tailplane, and in the last days of his life he was working on a head harness by which he could mechanically lower this tailplane and use it in a limited fashion as an elevator. While testing this harness in flight, he stalled, side-slipped and crashed 50ft to the ground. On the following day, 10 August 1896, he died from the effects of a broken spine. The resigned expression he frequently used - Opfer mussen gebracht werden (Sacrifices must be made) - is carved on his tombstone.
   Lilienthal had made great use of photography in his study of the flight of birds; and in turn many excellent photographs were made of Lilienthal in flight - a principal reason why he came so quickly to the attention of Hargrave in Australia and the Wright brothers in Ohio. Another man who admired, imitated, and positively developed his work was a British engineer, Percy Pilcher.

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Описание:

  • A.Andrews. The Flying Machine: Its Evolution through the Ages (Putnam)
  • Журнал Flight
  • P.Jarrett - Pioneer Aircraft: Early Aviation Before 1914 /Putnam/

    Otto Lilienthal airborne in his Maihohe hang glider at Rhinow in 1893. Built mainly of willow and cotton shirting, it had wings that could be folded on the ground to aid transportation.

  • P.Jarrett - Pioneer Aircraft: Early Aviation Before 1914 /Putnam/

    Lilienthal in his Vorlugelapparat of 1895, showing the patented leading-edge flaps intended to raise the glider's nose to aid recovery from a nose-dive, and the wingtip steering air brakes that were soon abandoned.

  • P.Jarrett - Pioneer Aircraft: Early Aviation Before 1914 /Putnam/

    The large biplane built and flown by Lilienthal in 1895 spanned 6.2m (20ft 4in) and had a wing area of 24m2 (258.3ft2). He also built a smaller, 5.2m (17ft)-span version.

  • A.Andrews - The Flying Maschine: Its Evolution through the Ages /Putnam/

    Artistically a most evocative composition, explains some of the great influence he exerted in presenting the grace and release of soaring flight.

  • A.Andrews - The Flying Maschine: Its Evolution through the Ages /Putnam/

    The Flight of Birds as the Basis for the Art of Flying was the theoretical work published by Otto Lilienthal in which he published his rediscovery of the fact ignored since Cayley had demonstrated it, that the outer primary feathers of a bird’s wings screw into the forward air and achieve the onward drive in flying. Lilienthal duplicated these outer primaries - there are six in each wing - and intended to activate them as individual airscrews by a small portable gas engine. (He was professionally a specialist in light steam engines.) But in this picture the contraption is being used solely as a hang-glider. Lilienthal eventually favoured the biplane glider as giving the required lift with more manageable control.

  • Журнал - Flight за 1913 г.

    Lilienthal's glider, one of a series built in Germany between 1890 and 1896. With the introduction of these machines real practice in the art of flying first commenced.