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 Otto Lilienthal
From 1891 to 1896, Lilienthal built five gliders that had a single wing (monoplane) and two gliders that had stacked wings (biplane). Lilenthal's wing design was shaped as a true symmetrical curve rather than the parabolic shape of the airfoils today. During his flying career, he managed to complete over 2000 flights.
During Lilienthal's first flights, he suspended himself in the glider with only his arms. By 1895, he developed a harness that was used to hang from the glider. In retrospect, with the application of the harness, Lilienthal was the first hang glider pilot.
 Otto Lilienthal's Glider
On August 8, 1896, Otto Lilienthal crashed his hang glider from an altitude of 50 feet (15.3 meters) after a wind gust ripped apart one of his wings. He died the next day in a Berlin hospital from a broken back. His last words were 'Sacrifices must be made'.
Lilienthal's knowledge in aerodynamics would prove beneficial to the Wrights who would later read his book and use the concepts as a beginning point for building their gliders.
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