LILIENTHAL, Otto (1848-96). Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegkunst.

LILIENTHAL, Otto (1848-96).  Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegkunst. Ein Beitrag zur Systematik der Flugtechnik. Auf Grund zahlreicher von O. und G. Lilienthal ausgefuhrter Versuche. Berlin: R. Gaertners Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1889. Large 8vo (229 x 155mm). Coloured lithographed frontispiece of storks in flight, 8 folding plates, illustrations and diagrams (one plate soiled at fore-edge with 2 short tears without loss, some very light mainly marginal browning). Original brown decorated cloth gilt (corners lightly bumped). Provenance: some localised pencil annotation and marginalia; from the Collection of Peter and Margarethe Braune. A FINE COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION of the first textbook of mechanical flight. "Lilienthal's book [became] one of the chief bibles for the aeronautical world after he demonstrated that his theories could be put into practice … It was the basis on which the Wrights first started building their aerodynamic work, and they were always high in praise of its pioneering value, even when they were led to modify Lilienthal's findings" (Gibbs-Smith, The Invention of the Aeroplane 1799-1909 (London, 1965)). "The Wrights themselves, and virtually all their biographers, date the beginning of their serious adult consideration of the flying problem from their reading of the work" (McFarland, The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, London, 1953). Brockett Bibliography of Aeronautics p. 520; Norman 1353.