History of aviation
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The history of aviation spans over two millennia, from the earliest innovations like kites and attempts at tower jumping to supersonic and hypersonic flight in powered, heavier-than-air jet aircraft.
French reconnaissance balloon L'Intrépide of 1796, the oldest existing flying device, in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna
The Wright Military Flyer aboard a wagon in 1908
Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopter design
Daedalus working on Icarus' wings
Otto Lilienthal
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Karl Wilhelm Otto Lilienthal was a German pioneer of aviation who became known as the "flying man". He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful flights with gliders, therefor
Lilienthal, c. 1895
Lilienthal in mid-flight, Berlin c. 1895
Models of his gliders
Restored 1894 glider displayed at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. It is one of five surviving Lilienthal gliders in the world.