This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam.

Otto Lillianth was a 19th century design engineer who was fascinated by the idea of flying machines.

He meticulously studied the shape of the wings of birds and invented a flying apparatus

that allowed him to glide short distances.

On Sunday, August 9, 1896, Otto went to a hilly region about 50 miles from where he lived in Berlin.

He strapped into his glider like a human stork and took three successful flights.

But on his fourth attempt, a strong gust of wind launched Otto up about 50 feet and then

careened him toward the earth. He tried to wrestle the glider out of a crash, but failed to do

so. The plunge broke Otto's neck. He died

shortly afterwards. A few years later, two bicycle mechanics in Ohio realized what was wrong

with Otto's glider. It required the pilot to move his body to change the center of

gravity of the machine. This system gave the pilot limited balance and control. It would be like

trying to maneuver a bicycle only by leaning to one side or another. Orville and Wilper Wright knew a great deal about balance and control from their work on bicycles.

While idly twisting a cardboard box one day, the brothers realized they could warp the shape of a fixed wing through a set of wires.

In effect, they could provide a pilot with a handlebar.

Tets confirmed that this system provided significantly more control

than Auto's glider.

The rest, of course, is history.

Otto Lillianthal had built a machine that mimicked the mechanics of birds.

He was an actual engineer.

The Wright brothers borrowed from the much more unlikely source of bicycle physics.

The history of invention is full of stories like this.

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