Otto Lilienthal (May 23 1848 – August 10 1896) was a German pioneer of human aviation who became known as the Glider King. He was the first person to make well-documented repeated successful gliding flights. He followed an experimental approach established earlier by Sir George Cayley. Newspapers and magazines published photographs of Lilienthal gliding favorably influencing public and scientific opinion about the possibility of flying machines becoming practical.
