The Story of Flight: Gliders

In 1811, a tailor AL Berblinger of Ulm, Germany collected a crowd to watch his historic flight across the river Danube. He had wings attached to his arms and jumped from the city wall to fall into the river ingloriously. Then came Otto Lilienthal who is considered as the first flying human. He made gliders of wood and canvas and flew some 2000 gliding sorties in five years. He was keenly aware of the issues that render the flight stable in air. He controlled the rolling movement of the glider by swinging his body from right to left. On August 9, 1896 Lilienthal fell with his glider from an altitude of 15m and fatally injured his spine. He died the next day. Germany honored him with a medal, which proclaimed him as a great teacher. Lilienthal’s legacy lives on today in the form of hang gliders. The space age materials have made these gliders lighter and more safe but the principles still remain the same. The pilot hangs from the metal frame and controls the glider by shifting his body weight. The stamp issued on April 29, 1992 depicts one such hang glider.