AERODYNAMIC EFFICIENCY OF GLIDING VEHICLES

Authors

  • Fred Hermanspann

Keywords:

Aerodynamics, Structures, Materials, Design

Abstract

One hundred years ago Otto Lilienthal fulfilled a lifelong dream and became the first to successfully fly a glider in a repeatable, controlled and documented way. He is today recognized not only as a courageous and skillful pilot but also as a careful and observant flight test engineer, as an innovative desisigner, as a tireless visionary who promoted gliding as a sport and even as the first manufacturer of a production glider. One should not forget Lilienthals' scientific achievemerts, in particular his work that is suumarized in his book 'Bird Flight as the Basis of Flying, published in 1889. Just as Lilienthal could not have foreseen the tremendous technical progress in the last 100 years and would have been utteriy amazed about what happened to his fragile gliding machine, we cannot possibly imagine all the wonderful and exciting developments in gliding machines by the year 2091!

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Issue

Vol. 18 No. 2 (1994)

Section

Articles

License

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