Flight is Not Improbable: Octave Chanute Combines Civil Engineering With Aeronautics

Abstract

The English engineer Sir George Cayley worked out the basic principles of the aircraft at the turn of the 19th century. The German mechanical engineer Otto Lilienthal realized that building a successful aircraft required learning how to fly first. The American civil engineer Octave Chanute learned from his many predecessors that mechanical flight was certainly within the range of possibilities. As a careful designer and critical analyst, he progressed systematically by observing and interpreting the behavior of his various glider designs in flight, an essential step in the initial development of the aeroplane. Following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Chanute began an ambitious aerodynamic research program in the summer of 1896. It is a unique opportunity to reflect on the happenings of more than a century ago when few believed that flight is probable.