5 Tala Lilienthal

Otto Lilienthal made over 2,000 gliding flights in Germany between 1891 and 1896, and his meticulous published data on wing curvature was directly used by the Wright Brothers in designing the Flyer. He died from injuries sustained in a crash near Rhinow in August 1896 — a detail that made his documentation of controlled flight all the more consequential to those who followed.