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Available in Française, Español, Português, Deutsch, Россию,
中文,
日本, and others.
 hile
the Wright brothers may have been the first to make a sustained,
controlled flight, they were just two among hundreds of brave men
and women who helped to give the world its wings during the earliest
days of aviation. Their Flyer was but one of many historically
important aircraft. Below are brief descriptions and photos of some
of the most important people and planes, and where available
resources and links where you can find more information. In some
cases, contributors have supplied expanded
histories and biographies. Those are listed at the right and linked below.
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Nikolaus Otto was a German salesman with an interest in new
technologies. He began designing a four-stroke-cycle internal
combustion engine in the early 1860s. At that time, there were
only primitive 2-cycle "atmospheric" engines that were
vibration-prone, inefficient, and not very powerful. Otto had little
success until he met Eugene Langen, owner of a sugar factory and a
fellow geek. The two of them started the first internal combustion
engine manufacturing company, designing and building better 2-cycle
engines. In 1867 they won a Gold Medal at the Paris World Exhibition
for their products. This led to the development of the first
practical four-cycle engine in 1876. And this engine evolved to
provide the driving force for transportation, especially automobiles
and airplanes, for over a century. Otto's son Gustav became an
airplane designer. |
Nikolaus Otto.
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One of the earliest commercially-produced Otto engines.
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