Sounds like things are 'warming up' again!  :(

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Berkowitz [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2002 2:05 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: Manned flight


Michael Baier writes


Even so the license-plate from NC reads "first in flight", the first
flight was in Germany by Otto Lilienthal and not the Wright Brothers.
They were the first with an engine but not the first to fly.
------------------------------------------------------------
Obviously that is incorrect.  The first flight was by the Montgolfier
brothers in their hot air balloon as described below by the Encyclopedia
Britannica.

The brothers discovered that heated air collected in a lightweight bag would
cause the bag to rise. In 1783 they demonstrated their discovery with a
balloon that rose 3,000 ft (1,000 m) and remained aloft 10 minutes. Later
that year they sent a sheep, a duck, and a rooster up as passengers, and
they followed that experiment with the first manned untethered balloon
flight.

Lilienthal craft while inspiring the Wright's lacked one key aspect the
Wright's had: A motor.  This segment from the web site
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~stwright/WrBr/inventors/Lilienthal.html

Before 1881, attempts to develop airplanes and gliders were occasional and
sporadic. Lilienthal changed all that. Indeed, Lilienthal's efforts broke
the 'respectability barrier' that haunted serious efforts to develop
airplanes. Before Lilienthal, building a heavier-than-air craft was widely
considered to be the province of dreamers and fools; afterwords it seemed
possible to fly. Thus, his efforts mark the beginning of the experimental
period of active research on heavier-than-air flight. Lilienthal developed
eighteen different models of his gliders over a span of 5 years. His efforts
received worldwide publicity, and his successes lent others the courage to
follow in his footsteps.

Fifteen of Lilienthal's gliders were monoplanes, three were biplanes. Each
model was a hang glider, controlled by the pilot shifting his weight rather
than through the use of any active control surfaces.

Mike Berkowitz
Guess? Inc.

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