Patent archives of the Museum

Our archives list patents of Otto and Gustav Lilienthal and those with the topic aviation at the Kaiserlichen Patentamtes up to 1910.
US aviation patents up to 1909 have been listed online by Mrs. Simine Short.

Patents of Otto Lilienthal

There are 25 known patents of Otto Lilienthal, most of them deal with his work as a machanical engineer and owner of a factory for steam boilers and engines, some concern with educational plays (invented together with his Brother Gustav), but only four have flying machines as their subject:

• Flugapparat - Deutsches Reichspatent Nr. 77916 v. 3. 9. 1893
• Flying machines - Brit. Patent N° 2519, 1894 v. 29. 5. 1895
• Flying machine - United States Patent N° 544816, v. 1. 2. 1894
• Flugapparat - Deutsches Reichspatent Nr. 84417 v. 29. 5. 1895

The first German, English and American patents are similar and cover gliders as well as a wing flapping machine. The second German patent is an extension, the so-called "Vorflügel" (slat), a flap for automatic attitude-changing in cases of negative angle of attack.