Aviation stories – The flying man
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When you pass Tegel airport, in Berlin, look for his name: Otto Lilienthal (1848-1896). And, if you have a little bit of time, you can for the sculpture of the flying man, chained to the ground. A bizarre choice if we think that Lilienthal was the first person to take off, fly and land safely, accumulating five hours of flight at the end of the 19th century, more than any other human up to that time. Leaving Tegel behind for a moment, perhaps you want to spend some time retracing the wall, the scar of a divided city and unwitting monument to the first airlift in history. If you do, make your way to the Lichterfelde area, to Schutte-Lanz-Strasse, to be more exact, where you will find grassy hillock topped with a cylindrical construction. Once there, we can get back to Lilienthal.
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A civil engineer by training, from an early stage Lilienthal became interesting in flight. His first experience was a contraption built by his brother Gustav, in 1867. Despite the ensuing failure, Lilienthal was not disheartened and he began a methodical study plan on the flight of birds that he published in 1889. He was the first to appreciate the importance of the curve in birds’ wings for flying. The book was published with the result of his study, Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation, would become the most important for aviation in the 19th century and interesting to read to this day.
Lilienthal constructed his first glider in 1891. Made out of willow twigs and tough cotton fabric, he would lauch himself from a trampoline initially placed at a height of one metre, which was gradually raised up to 2.5 metres. The distance covered increased as well, reaching 25 metres. In 1894, the engineer built the hillock where we were a short time ago, in Lichterfelde. The circular structure on the top was the hangar where he stored the gliders and where he took off. Using Lichterfelde and other locations, Lilienthal achieve flights up to 250 metres, being the only person at the time to do so on a regular basis until his death, which occurred after an accident in 1896. The machines were controlled by body movement, a technique that would reapper in the 1960s with hang gliders.
Unlike the man chained to the ground in Tegel, Lilienthal flew thanks to his perseverance and methodical spirit. Through his writing and in-flight photos he managed to overcome a force that was sometimes greater that gravity: the disdain that those who sought to pave the way into the skies had to endure, representing a unique influence in the scientific legitimisation of aviation. At risk of using excessive poetic licence, we could say that, fifty years later, Lilienthal gave invaluable assistance to his countrymen at the time of the Berlim airlift…
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by Ricardo Reis
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