Otto Lilienthal - Final Flight

Final Flight

On 9 August 1896, Lilienthal went as on previous weekend to the Rhinow Hills. The day was very sunny and not too hot (about 20°C). The first flights were successful, reaching a distance of 250 metres (820 ft) in his normal glider. During the fourth flight Lilienthal's glider stalled. He tried to re-establish lift by swinging his body back to correct the attitude of the glider. That maneuver failed and he fell from a height of about 15 metres (49 ft), while still in the glider.

Paul Beylich, Lilienthal's glider mechanic, transported him by horse drawn carriage to Stölln, where he was examined by a physician. Lilienthal had a fracture of third cervical vertebra and soon became unconscious. Later that day he was transported in a cargo train to Lehrter train station in Berlin, and the next morning to the clinic of Ernst von Bergmann, one of the most famous and successful surgeons in Europe at the time. Lilienthal died there a few hours later (about 36 hours after the crash), his last words to his brother Gustav were "sacrifices must be made."

Otto Lilienthal was buried at Lankwitz public cemetery in Berlin.

Read more about this topic:  Otto Lilienthal

Famous quotes containing the words final and/or flight:

    What the vast majority of American children needs is to stop being pampered, stop being indulged, stop being chauffeured, stop being catered to. In the final analysis it is not what you do for your children but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings.
    Ann Landers (b. 1918)

    Sure smokers have made personal choices. And they pay for those choices every day, whether sitting through an airline flight dying for a smoke, or dying for a smoke in the oncology wing of a hospital. The tobacco companies have not paid nearly enough for the killing.
    Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)