Normal sailing apparatus
| Normal sailing apparatus | |
|---|---|
 Normal sailing apparatus - four pushed-on profile rails fix the wing profile |
|
| Type: | Glider |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: |
Machine factory Otto Lilienthal |
| First flight: |
1893 |
| Commissioning: |
1893 |
| Production time: |
1894-1896 |
| Number of pieces: |
at least 9 |
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The normal glider is a glider developed by Otto Lilienthal in 1893 that is steered by shifting weight . Lilienthal himself completed over a thousand gliding flights , especially from the Fliegeberg in Lichterfelde near Berlin .
The normal sailing apparatus is the first mass- produced aircraft in history to be marketed as a product . From 1894 to 1896 it was offered by the Otto Lilienthal machine works for 500 marks .
development
In addition to the best possible aerodynamic properties, Lilienthal also attached great importance to ease of handling and portability of its aircraft. With the knowledge from his previous flying machines, he therefore developed a collapsible flying machine in 1893 in which the wing profile is secured by profile rails pushed onto the wing (see picture). He applied for and received a patent for this construction, which he called a collapsible flying machine with a carrying surface of 14 square meters and a “model 93”. This design was the prototype of the normal sailing apparatus .
Technical specifications
- Span: 6.7 m
- Weight: 20 kg
- maximum flight distance (reached from Lilienthal): 250 m
- Slip ratio: 1: 4
Control by shifting weight ( hang glider ); Elevator can be moved upwards; The wings can be folded to facilitate transport.
Buyers
At the end of 1893 Lilienthal reported that he had already set up several orders and a “special factory”. An advertisement from 1895 has survived. Quote: The machine factory of O. Lilienthal - Berlin S. Köpenickerstrasse 113 manufactures sailing equipment for practicing aerobatics.
Nine buyers of the normal sailing apparatus are known by name (buyer, delivery date):
- Charles EL Brown , March 1894,
- Heinrich Seiler, summer 1894,
- Charles de Lambert , summer 1894,
- Alois Wolfmüller , December 1894,
- Kilian Frank , February 1895,
- TJ Bennett , March 1895,
- George Francis Fitzgerald , March 1895,
- William Randolph Hearst , April 1896.
- Nikolai Jegorowitsch Schukowski , June 1896,
The American aviation pioneer Octave Chanute also asked for a device in the spring of 1895. However, there was no sale. In 1896, the US aviation sponsor James Means planned to deliver several gliders with pilot training in Berlin, which did not happen after Lilienthal's fatal crash.
accident
On August 9, 1896, Lilienthal crashed near Stölln am Gollenberg with his normal sailing apparatus from a height of about 15 m. When he had almost come to a standstill in flight, Lilienthal threw legs and upper body far forward to record the journey. In the course of this position correction, he fell almost vertically to the ground and hit the right wing. Lilienthal was badly injured. On August 10, 1896, he died of the injuries. The autopsy revealed a fracture of the third cervical vertebra.
In 2016, the DLR Institute for Flow Research in Göttingen carried out studies on flight stability and control . The head of the institute stated that the assumption “that instability could have been the cause of the crash” stated that this would not have been confirmed by the measurements. The cause was therefore not the construction (profile, surface design, etc.) of the glider, but a pilot's error, possibly due to the fact that Lilienthal was now used to the more stable flight behavior of the biplane. The flight practice with the normal apparatus as well as with the biplane based on it was learned and understood by Prof. Markus Raffel from DLR in 2019.
Received aircraft
Four normal sailing apparatuses have been restored in museums to different degrees:
- Munich : German Museum
- Washington, DC : National Air and Space Museum
- London : Science Museum
- Moscow : Zhukovsky Museum
Only one other of Lilienthal's aircraft has survived : the so-called storm wing , a variant of the normal apparatus ( Technical Museum Vienna ).
All other exhibits on display in museums are replicas. There are over 42 replicas of the normal sailing apparatus alone worldwide.
literature
- On Lilienthal's aircraft construction: Stephan Nitsch : From jump to flight ; Brandenburgisches Verlagshaus, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-327-01090-0 , new edition under the title Die Flugzeug von Otto Lilienthal. Technology - Documentation - Reconstruction Otto-Lilienthal-Museum Anklam 2016, ISBN 978-3-941681-88-0
- To the machine factory "Otto Lilienthal": Otto Lilienthal Museum Anklam. The aviation pioneer steam engine ; Kulturstiftung der Länder - Patrimonia 271; Anklam, 2004, ISSN 0941-7036
- About the buyers: Werner Schwipps: Man flies - Lilienthal's flight attempts in historical recordings ; Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1988, ISBN 3-7637-5838-0 .
- Aircraft to be preserved: Peter W. Cohausz: German aircraft until 1945 , Aviatic Verlag, ISBN 978-3-942645-12-6
See also
Web links
- Overview of all aircraft built by Lilienthal
- Lilienthal's aircraft patents
- One day Spiegel-Online: One last flight
- From the photographs of Lilienthal's flights that have been preserved, the Dutchman Johannes Hogebrink created the realistic film animation of a typical flight of the normal sailing apparatus on the Fliegeberg in Lichterfelde.
- Robert Gast: The great moment of technology - Otto Lilienthal and the dream of flying. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , May 19, 2016
- DLR flight test with Lilienthal's biplane
Individual evidence
- ↑ Patent US | No. 544816
- ↑ Maihöhe-Rhinow apparatus 1893
- ↑ The beginnings of flying: Lilienthal flight apparatus passes test in the wind tunnel. In: Science. Spiegel Online , May 18, 2016, accessed on May 18, 2016 : "The crash could not have been due to the construction."
- ↑ Lilienthal, Otto: Letter to Moedebeck. Archive of the Otto Lilienthal Museum, November 14, 1893, accessed on July 22, 2020 .
- ↑ Schwipps, Man flies , p. 123ff
- ↑ Schwipps, Man flies , p. 123
- ↑ without title. In: Berliner Tageblatt and Handelszeitung. August 13, 1896, p. 4 of the evening edition , accessed on October 4, 2019 : "According to the judicial section, the body of the unfortunate engineer Otto Lilienthal is ..."
- ↑ Bärbel Wiethoff: Researchers test Lilienthal gliders in Göttingen. NDR - Norddeutscher Rundfunk, May 19, 2016, accessed on May 19, 2016 .
- ↑ DLR employees manage to fly with a replica of Otto Lilienthal. German Aerospace Center V. (DLR), September 18, 2019, accessed on October 4, 2019 .
- ↑ Robert Gast, Markus Raffel: You think you can really fly. Spektrum der Wissenschaft Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, October 3, 2019, accessed on October 4, 2019 .
- ^ Deutsches Museum: Lilienthal normal sailing apparatus
- ^ Lilienthal Glider in Early Flight
- ^ Otto Lilienthal Museum, Anklam
