1880 to 1898

1880-1890 Otto Lilienthal, Germany, begins to test cambered wing surfaces and measures their lifting capability.
1881 Louis Moulliard, France, writes another milestone in aeronautics, Empire of the Air, in which he proposes fixed-wing gliders with cambered wings, like birds. He also proposes that aviators practice in gliders to gain the skill needed to pilot an aircraft in the air. Up until that time, everyone in the infant field of aviation presumed you could navigate the sky with no more skill than a chauffer. It split the field into two camps, each with a different approach to making a practical aircraft. The chauffeurs focus on engineering, making a powered flying machine. The pilots practice with gliders to gain skill before attempting powered flight.
1883 John J. Montgomery of California builds a monoplane glider and makes the first gliding flight in America. The glider crashes and is destroyed at the end of its maiden flight, and Montgomery barely escapes with his life. Charles Parsons, England, inventor of the turbine motor, tests a small 1/4 horsepower steam turbine engine in a model airplane, propelling it for approximately 300 feet. Although Parsons experiments had little effect on the development of aviation, some consider this to be the first jet aircraft.	Montgomery's initial glider was a monoplane, similar to this later model that he made in 1910.
1884 Alexander F. Mozhaiski, Russia, builds a steam-powered monoplane and tests it at Krasnoye Selo, near St. Petersburg. It takes off on a jump ramp and flies for approximately 100 feet before crashing. This is the second power-assisted take-off in history. Horatio F. Phillips, England, experiments with cambered wings in a wind tunnel and lays down the scientific foundation for modern airfoil design. He is the first to discover that when the wind blows across a curved surface, it creates a low pressure area on top of the surface and high pressure beneath it. This, in turn, generates lift.	Mozhaiski's aircraft featured propeller embedded in the wings.
1888 Augustus Herring, New York, builds and tests a glider. It fails to fly.
1889 Octave Chanute, Illinois, presents two papers on the progress of aeronautical experiments to date. Lawrence Hargrave, Australia, builds the first rotary airplane engine. It runs on compressed air and Hargrave uses it to power his model aircraft. March 1 — Orville Wright begins to publish The West Side News. Wilbur contributes humorous essays, news, and editorials. Paul Laurence Dunbar contributes poems and essays.	Hargrave's model "Flyer No. 7," powered by a compressed air motor.
1890 Clement Ader, France, builds a steam-powered, propeller-driven bat-wing airplane, the Eole. It rises about 8 inches in the air and flies 165 feet. It is the first manned aircraft to take off from level ground.	Ader's "Eole" never quite as far off the ground as this illustration suggests.
1891 Otto Lilienthal begins to test winged gliders, made from cloth stretched over willow frameworks. Samuel Langley, Virginia, begins to experiment with steam-powered model aircraft he calls Aerodromes. The first five are failures. October — Octave Chanute begins to publish articles on aviation in the Railroad and Engineering Journal. They will later be collected in a single work.	Lilenthal's first succesful glider, his "No. 3." One of Langley's unsuccessful aerodromes with biplane wings fore and aft.
1892 Hiram Maxim, England, builds an enormous biplane and tests it on a special track designed to capture the aircraft after it rises a few inches off the ground and prevent it from flying free. The the aircraft breaks loose, then is destroyed in the ensuing crash. Edward Huffaker, Tennessee, builds and test glider models. Wilbur and Orville Wright purchase "safety bicycles" and open a sales and repair shop. They give a bicycle to their friend, Paul Laurence Dunbar.	Hiram Maxim's enormous biplane was powered by two 180-hp steam engines. While Maxim's airplane may not have been successful, his engines were technological marvels. Each engine was light enough the Maxim could lift them.
1893 Hiram Maxim predicts that even "under the most unfavorable circumstances, aerial navigation will be an accomplished fact inside of ten years." Lawrence Hargrave, Australia, invents the box kite. Because it is remarkably stable and generates large amounts of lift, it creates a sensation in aeronautical circles. It's general form influences all early airplane designers.	Hargraves with a chain of large box kites that lifted him off the ground.
1894 Otto Lilienthal is regularly making glides of over 1000 feet. He begins to outfit his gliders with a "rebound bow" at the front to absorb the shock of a rough landing. It saves his life on at least one occasion. Augustus Herring buys a glider from Otto Lilienthal. He then builds two of his own, attempting to improve on Lilienthal’s design. Octave Chanute collects his articles on aviation and publishes them in a book, Progress in Flying Machines. It is the most complete and well thought-out work on aeronautics to date. July 31 — Hiram Maxim makes a short hop in his huge biplane, but the machine is wrecked.	Lilienthal gliding before an audience. To facilitate his gliding experiments, Lilenthal built a hill to launch from. He named this "Flight Mountain."
1895 Percy Pilcher, Scotland, builds a glider, the Bat. Visits Otto Lilienthal and asks for advice. Makes suggested improvement and flies the Bat. Builds two more gliders, the Beetle and the Gull, making improvements on each one. Edward Huffaker begins to work for Samuel Langley, designing wings for Langley’s Aerodromes. Augustus Herring also works briefly for Langley, doing dynamics tests. Augustus Herring moves to Chicago and begins to build a Lilienthal-type glider for Octave Chanute. The Aeronautical Annual begins publication. It lasts for 3 years. William Avery, Illinois, builds a Chanute-designed multi-wing glider. William Paul Butusov, Russian immigrant, builds a bird-like crafts for Chanute, the Albatross.	Pilcher's first three gliders, from the top: the Bat, the Beetle, and the Gull. The Albatross required a special launching ramp to get it airborn.
1896 Percy Pilcher builds a much-improved glider, the Hawk, and glides up to 750 feet. He plans a powered version The Wright brothers begin to manufacture their own bicycles. James Means, Massachusetts, writes in the Aeronautical Annual that bicycling and flying present similar problems of control and balance. May 6 — Samuel Langley tests a steam-powered model aircraft, the Aerodrome No. 5, on the Potomac. It flies for 3,300 feet. June 22 — Octave Chanute, Augustus Herring, William Avery, and others test their gliders at the Indiana Dunes on Lake Michigan. August 9 — Otto Lilienthal dies in a glider crash. August — Upon hearing of Lilienthal’s death, the Wright brothers begin a systematic search for literature on aeronautics. August 21 — Octave Chanute, Herring, and others test the Albatross and a new biplane glider designed by Chanute and Herring. The performance of the Albatross is disappointing, but the biplane glider makes flights up to 359 feet. November 28 — Samuel Langley tests another steam powered Aerodrome No. 6. It flies for almost a mile.	The Pilcher Hawk in flight -- it was controlled exactly the same way as Lilienthal controlled his gliders. Pilcher kicked his legs to shift his body weight in the direction he wanted to go. The unmanned Langley Aerodromes No. 5 and 6 had a 14-foot wingspan. Up till that time, they were the largest powered airplanes ever flown. The Chanute multi-wing Katydid was gentle and stable in the air, but it's performance was disappointing. The Chanute-Herring biplane was a much better flyer -- better even than the Lilienthal model Chanute's band tested. The most likely cause of Lilienthal's fatal crash was a stall -- a gust of wind angled the airplane up and Lielnthal could not bring the nose down before he lost flying speed.
1897 September — August Herring tests a biplane glider with a tail of his own design at the Indiana dunes. October 12 — Clement Ader, France tests an improved version of his plane, called the Avion III, but it fails to get off the ground.	Ader's Avion III in a French museum. Although official reports testified that it never left the ground, Ader would later claim it flew 330 feet.
1898 Samuel Langley, Virginia, secures $50,000 funding from the War Department to build a man-carrying version of his Aerodrome by 1899. Wilbur Wright observes that buzzards control their lateral balance by twisting the feathers at the tips of their wings. Ferdinand Ferber and Ernest Archdeacon, France, organizes the Aero Club of France. October 11 — August Herring flies for about 50 feet in a biplane glider powered by a compressed air engine at St. Joseph, Michigan. Later, he flies 73 feet.	Herring's 4 horsepower compressed air motor did not give his biplane enough oomph to sustain itself in the air.