Carl Friedrich Meerwein

Carl Friedrich Meerwein (2 August 1737 in Leiselheim – 6 December 1810 in Emmendingen) was a German civil engineer and aviation pioneer.
He built flying devices with moving wings. According to the "Encyclopædia Britannica" he succeeded in flying with one of these devices, an ornithopter in 1781, at Giessen, Germany. Further attempts were less successful. There is a legend that he only survived one of his flights in 1784 because he hit exactly upon a dung pile.
"Meerwein, the architect of the Prince of Baden, built an orthopteric machine, and protested against the tendency of the aerostats which had just been invented." (Verne, "Robur")
Meerwein died as a result of a fall from a horse.