02 - Aviation Pioneers - Sir Geoge Cayley & Otto Lilenthal (Part 1)

Sir George Cayley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_George_Cayley), a nineteenth century English baronet (British hereditary dignity, first created by King James I in May 1611), deserves to be remembered as the “father of aeronautics”. His deep curiosity led him to conduct the first real experiments designed to uncover the basic principles of flight. He discovered the arched shape of a bird’s wing was one of the secrets of bird flight and reasoned that a similar shape on a fixed-wing machine might also allow it to fly. Cayley designed, built and flew the world’s first model glider in 1804. He continued his experiments throughout his life and is said to have sent his coachman on a short glide across a shallow valley near his home at Brompton Hall, in 1853.

Early in the nineteenth century, dreams gave way to serious attempts to understand the principles of flight and to apply what had been learned to the design of real flying machines.
Cautious experimenters tested their ideas with powered models, while the more daring tried the dangers of gliding flight. Their successes and their failures helped move human beings toward what some considered impossible and others considered inevitable – piloted, powered flight!


During the early flight ages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_flight), Otto Lilienthal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Lilienthal) built on both the experiments and information provided by Sir George Cayley. He published the results of his ground-based research, “Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation”, in 1890. He began to apply what he had learned to design gliders. Between 1890 and the time of his death in a glider crash in August 1896, Lilienthal made as many as 2,000 flights in eighteen different designs, including both monoplanes (single-wing) and biplanes (dual-wing). All his craft were hang gliders, controlled in the air by movements of the pilot's body, which hung under the machine. The work of Otto Lilienthal provided the starting point for experimenters who sould take the final necesary steps towards the invention of the airplane.

Lilienthal's hang glider













Monoplane is aircraft with only one main wing.


Biplanes have two main wings, normally one above the other usually found in older aircraft.