Flight theory

Development of aviation and flight theory, record table 1. Up to the first powered flight. The Frenchman Alphonse Penaud discovered around 1870 that an aircraft requires only a suitable tail fin - damping surface - to be stable in the longitudinal direction. He also found that lateral instability is reduced by bending or curving the wings upwards. On August 18, 1871, he allowed a rubber band-powered model airplane to fly freely in front of witnesses. This was the first flight of an "artificial bird." A few years later, Penaud, at the age of 30, took his own life due to illness and the neglect of his invention. The German Otto Lilienthal discovered around 1890 that curved wings are significantly superior in lift to flat surfaces. He sought to come closer to solving the problem of flight by experimenting with wings himself.