Brothers Otto and Gustav Lilienthal were German pioneers of gliding. In the 1890s, they built wings intended to enable humans to fly.
Their first design, without vertical stabilizing surfaces, did not meet expectations. It was not until 1891, after adding a vertical stabilizer, that Lilienthal managed to make a 300-metre flight from a hillside near Drewitz.
The brothers continued their experiments until Otto Lilienthal’s death in an accident on 9 August 1896. By that time, they had built over a dozen different wing designs. Seven of them survive in the world today.
The exhibited wing is a replica of the 1894 design, built at the Polish Aviation Museum by Bronislaw Zawicki, Franciszek Stanko and Edward Micuda in 1969. The original is housed in the Museum of Technology NOT in Warsaw.
| Wingspan | 6.6 m |
| Length | 2.7 m |
