Prof Dr Peter Röben
Institute of Physics/Working Group Technical Education

Moderation: NDR 1 Niedersachsen
Gong child: Janto (8)
Camera child: Taalke (8)

It's unimaginable that there was a time without aeroplanes, isn't it? Only 500 years ago, flying was just a dream. The famous scholar and painter Leonardo da Vinci, for example, dreamed this dream. He studied how birds fly and designed various flying machines that imitated the flapping of birds' wings. However, it took almost another 400 years before flying really worked. One of the pioneers of flight was Otto Lilienthal. He achieved the first gliding flight with an aeroplane. From this point onwards, around 1900, the real history of the aeroplane began.

But there was still a long way to go before aeroplanes looked and functioned as they do today. We won't be flying together in this lecture, but we will immerse ourselves in the adventurous history of the development of flight and take a look at the most exciting stages on the way to the "aircraft of today".