Inventors spend years living with their designs; tinkering with them, perfecting them until they are ready to show them off to the world. Most toil away in obscurity for the rest of their lives, although there are obvious exceptions.
Yet there are also those whose innovations not only attracted the world's attention but which - one way or another - sadly resulted in the inventor's death, too.
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"Thanks to Lilienthal’s efforts and the write-ups about them in the press, the scientific community and the general public started to realize that flying machines were possible."
I'm sorry? What!
George Cayley was considered by many, including the Wright brothers, to be the father of aviation. His first successful full sized manned flight (manned by his coachman) was made when Lilienthal was only five years old. His first flight with a smaller glider crewed by a 10 year old boy was made when Lilienthal was still and infant. Cayley's work was widely documented long before Lilienthal began his flights. His experiments with paper gliders are claimed to have begun as early as 1792.
Cayley was almost certainly an influence upon Lilienthal. At the very least Lilienthal must have been aware of Cayley's work. He certainly did not make the scientific community "start to realize that flying machines were possible". Cayley had done that years earlier.
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