88 



OUR PHYSICAL WORLD 



The glider has played an important part in the development 

 of the aeroplane, for it was quite necessary that some skill should 

 be achieved in balancing the glider before it was possible to fly in 

 an aeroplane. Without such skill an aeroplane might be made to 

 rise, but it would dash itself and its occupant to almost certain 

 destruction. The Lillienthal brothers in Germany, Santos- 

 Dumont in France, Chanute at Chicago, and the Wright brothers 

 at Dayton, Ohio, became quite expert in balancing themselves 

 on their gliders, and succeeded in making fairly long flights. 

 Lillienthal, by taking advantage of ascending air currents, 

 occasionally rose above the elevation from which he started 



FIG. 37. Lillienthal's glider 



(Fig. 37). Santos-Dumont had his glider towed by a boat after 

 the manner of a boy running with a kite. Otto Lillienthal met 

 his death when he tried to fly in a glider to which an engine had 

 been added. Santos-Dumont and the Wright brothers were 

 more fortunate, although they were not the first to go up in an 

 aeroplane carrying a man, as will be related below. 



Not only did the glider help in the development of the aero- 

 plane, but the experience gained in flying aeroplanes has in turn 

 developed skill in balancing and in making adjustments to the 

 air currents that have enabled men to make sustained flights in 

 gliders. H. P. Henzen, a student at the Hanover Technical 

 School, flew for three hours and a few minutes in an engineless 



