Jean-Marie Le Bris'

Quotes:
"A sailor and sea captain, Jean-Marie Le Bris sailed around the world observing the flight of the Albatross bird. Although he sailed around the world, his true ambition was to fly. He caught some of the birds and analysed the interaction of their wings with air, identifying the aerodynamic phenomenon of lift, which he called "aspiration".

-Wikipedia, Jean-Marie Le Bris'

"Jean Marie Le Bris was a French sailor and sea captain who had observed the soaring flight of the albatross on trips around Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope. He was fascinated to see the bird floating and wheeling without any apparent exertion, its wings held apparently rigid. Le-Bris killed one of the soaring wonders and experimented with its wing. He thought he detected a quality to the wing's interaction with the air which he termed "aspiration."

By December of 1856 he had constructed the first of two large relatively lightweight gliders based closely on the proportions and configuration of the albatross, which he designated, not surprisingly, "The Artificial Albatross." His mechanical 50 foot wing-span wooden and cloth albatross was outfitted with hand-operated levers to change the angle of incidence of the wings and with foot-operated devices to alter the relative position of the tail. He mounted the flying machine on a horse-drawn cart and had the cart's driver head the horse down a road, into the wind. When Le Bris attempted to slip the restraining rope and his craft began to lift into the air, but it hesitated, still attached by a snag. The Artificial Albatross finally broke free, but one report has the driver becoming snared in the line and going aloft with Le Bris and the glider. The original written report of this event, proclaiming itself to be true and accurate, stated that Le Bris and the glider rose to about 300 feet, with the cart driver dangling below, sailed about 600 feet, and then came to a controlled and gentle landing, only damaging a wing, the cart driver landing softly and unhurt. What ever the truth about the altitude reached, the distance flown, or whether there was an unwilling cart driver hanging from a rope beneath, it seems entirely credible that Le Bris did manage to make a gliding flight in his machine."

-FLYING MACHINES

Description:
Jean-Marie Le Bris' was an active zoologist, studying birds such as the albatross and specimines like the flying squirrel. He dubbed the term "aspiration" something that means a goal in life that may be hopelessly out of reach. His work in powered flight changed the outcome of everything to come.

Related:

 * L'Albatros Artificiel