The Large Biplane of 1895 @museum.de

After multiple attempts, Lilienthal finally became skilled at gliding flight. But he wanted to improve both lift and steering. To gain altitude during a flight, he had to enlarge the wings. So he designed his first biplane:

“I came up with the idea of mounting two smaller wings, one above the other, both of which would have a lifting effect when soaring through the air. The result has to be the same as with a single wing that has twice the load-bearing capacity. But because of the small size, it would be sufficiently responsive to shifts in the centre of gravity. “

In other words: Lilienthal increased the wing area without increasing the width and hence the leverage of the wings. A stroke of genius! His attempts to fly the biplane proved promising:

"Even at wind speeds of between 6 and 7 metres, I can glide almost horizontally off the top of my hill."

With a wing area of initially just under 20, and eventually 24 square metres (equivalent to 215 and 268 square feet respectively), Lilienthal's biplanes seemed to point the way to the future. The Small Biplane is based on the Storm-Wing Model – also on the wall – the yellow one, over to the left. The Large Biplane’s undercarriage is structurally almost identical to that of the Normal Soaring Apparatus of 1894.

Lilienthal kept his Large Biplane here in Stölln – to carry on testing and refining it at weekends. On the 9th of August 1896, as he was carrying out flight tests with the undercarriage of the Large Biplane, he was caught by a gust of wind, fell 15 metres and broke his spine. Lilienthal died the following day, aged just 48.

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Zitate nach Nitsch, Die Flugzeuge von Otto Lilienthal, Otto-Lilienthal-Museum 2016, S. 116 und 118.