where did the wright brothers get the idea of an airplane
Wright brothers 1896 brought three important aeronautical events. In May, Smithsonian Institution Secretary Samuel Langley successfully flew an unmanned steam-powered fixed-wing model aircraft. In mid-year, Chicago engineer and aviation authority Octave Chanute brought together several men who tested various types of gliders over the sand dunes along the shore of Lake Michigan. In August, Lilienthal was killed in the plunge of his glider.[28] These events lodged in the minds of the brothers, especially Lilienthal's death. The Wright brothers later cited his death as the point when their serious interest in flight research began.[29] Wilbur said, "Lilienthal was without question the greatest of the precursors, and the world owes to him a great debt."[29] In May 1899 Wilbur wrote a letter[30] to the Smithsonian Institution requesting information and publications about aeronautics.[31] Drawing on the work of Sir George Cayley, Chanute, Lilienthal, Leonardo da Vinci, and Langley, they began their mechanical aeronautical experimentation that year.
Otto Lilienthal Otto Lilienthal (23 May 1848 – 10 August 1896) was a German pioneer of aviation who became known as the flying man[2]. He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful flights with unpowered airplanes.[3] Newspapers and magazines published photographs of Lilienthal gliding, favorably influencing public and scientific opinion about the possibility of flying machines becoming practical. On 9 August 1896, his glider stalled and he was unable to regain control. Falling from about 15 m (50 ft), he broke his neck and died the next day, 10 August 1896.