Gallery: One of the World’s First Aircraft Comes Back to Life (Bowtie Included)

  • WindkanalTests des LilienthalGleiters im LLFWindkanal des DNW in Marknesse Niederlande
    German Aerospace Center
    01

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    German researchers rebuilt Otto Lilienthal's "Normalsegelapparat."
  • WindkanalTests des LilienthalGleiters im LLFWindkanal des DNW in Marknesse Niederlande
    German Aerospace Center
    02

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    The goal was to learn more about his work, how close he came to sustained flight, and what caused his fatal crash.
  • WindkanalTests des LilienthalGleiters im LLFWindkanal des DNW in Marknesse Niederlande
    German Aerospace Center
    03

    26502342504-d2e09d7d03-o.jpg

    The researchers went to the Otto Lilienthal Museum in Anklam, Germany to get the original design drawings.
  • Anbringen der Bespannung auf das Gerüst des LilienthalGleiter am OttoLilienthalMuseum in Anklam
    German Aerospace Center
    04

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    They spent six weeks building the wooden frame, based on Lilienthal's original plans.
  • WindkanalTests des LilienthalGleiters im LLFWindkanal des DNW in Marknesse Niederlande
    German Aerospace Center
    05

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    They needed a specialty factory in central Germany to produce the very much out of production, thick cotton cloth Lilienthal used.
  • Image may contain Tripod Building Hangar Human Person and Utility Pole
    German Aerospace Center
    06

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    Fully assembled, the Normalsegelapparat weighs just 40 pounds, and stretches 20 feet from one wingtip to the other.
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    German Aerospace Center
    07

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    The team sent the glider to one of the world’s largest wind tunnels, in Emmeloord, Holland, along with a mannequin.
  • WindkanalTests des LilienthalGleiters im LLFWindkanal des DNW in Marknesse Niederlande
    German Aerospace Center
    08

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    They even dressed the dummy à la Lilienthal, in knickers, a white dress shirt, and bow tie.
  • WindkanalTests des LilienthalGleiters im LLFWindkanal des DNW in Marknesse Niederlande
    German Aerospace Center
    09

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    It performed just as they had hoped, with a glide ratio of four (moving four feet forward for every foot dropped).
  • WindkanalTests des LilienthalGleiters im LLFWindkanal des DNW in Marknesse Niederlande
    German Aerospace Center
    10

    27039529461-fe81f6fffd-o.jpg

    “It was a really airworthy sailplane,” project lead Andreas Dillman says. “You could put the drawings in a textbook.”
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