An ornithopter is an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. Designers sought to imitate the flapping-wing flight of birds, bats, and insects. Though machines may differ in form, they are usually built on the same scale as flying animals. Larger, crewed ornithopters have also been built and some have been successful. Crewed ornithopters are generally powered either by engines or by the pilot.
Leonardo da Vinci's ornithopter design
E.P. Frost's 1902 ornithopter
Otto Lilienthal on August 16, 1894, with his kleiner Schlagflügelapparat
Schmid 1942 Ornithopter
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, therefore making the idea of heavier-than-air aircraft a reality. Newspapers and magazines published photographs of Lilienthal gliding, favourably influencing public and scientific opinion about the possibility of flying machines becoming practical.
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.