A Brief History of Human Powered Transportation

The photograph shows Otto Lilienthal (Germany) in an 1896 flight in his hang-glider. This was one of his later aircraft, and he was killed in a crash in August of 1896. His previous machines had attempted to exploit flapping wings for powered flight (ornithopters) in an unsuccessful attempt to mimic the flight of birds. Lilianthal had also unsuccessfully explored the idea of powered flight to assist takeoff and climbing to a height at which gliding could occur.

From: Reay, "The History of Man-Powered Flight," Pergamon (1977)