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Air and space pioneers
Perhaps he was the world's first powered aviator: Richard Pearse. Never heard of him? Quite possibly! 120 years ago, on March 31, 1903, he is said to have completed a short flight in a self-built powered aircraft in Waitohi in New Zealand.
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They are as famous as Columbus: every child today knows Orville and Wilbur Wright as the world's first powered aviators. On 17 December 1903, they made the first short flights with their "Flyer" on the beach of Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk in North Carolina.
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He is world-famous as the "father of aviation": Otto Lilienthal, who died on 10 August 1896. The day before, after numerous successful flight attempts, he had crashed with a glider he had built himself. It is less well known that Lilienthal also was a versatile inventor and engineer who registered a number of interesting patents in various fields.
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Melli Beese was the first woman to acquire a „Flugzeugführerlizenz“. Germany's first female pilot had to overcome enormous resistance before she passed the exam on 13 September 1911. The aviation pioneer, constructor and entrepreneur fought for her place in history - as a figure who was as brave as she was tragic.
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It was one of the greatest events in the history of mankind: the first astronaut walking the moon in 1969. A small step in that very moment for Neil Armstrong, but a giant leap for mankind.
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Everybody still knows the name of the first man on the moon. But only a few people knew until recently that some women had also played a decisive role in the millennium project of the lunar landing. In recent years, the names of some of these heroines have become known to a wider public. We present some of them in a small series.
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On 1 March 1945, the first vertically-launching aircraft with rocket propulsion took off. The Bachem Ba 349 may also be called the first manned rocket. The "Natter" (viper, its project name) was a mixed construction of rocket and aircraft with a predetermined breaking point, a partially recyclable disposable interceptor.
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Perhaps the world's first powered flight took place on August 14, 1901 in Bridgeport, Connecticut - or maybe not. Few questions in the history of technology are discussed as fiercely as the question of whether the Wright brothers were the first to fly a powered aircraft - or Gustave Whitehead more than two years earlier?
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Käthe Paulus was a dazzling figure: courageous pioneer of aviation, daring acrobat, clever inventor and lifesaver. On 22 December 1868, the developer of the modern parachute was born in Zellhausen near Offenbach.
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Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Last updated: 15 December 2023
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