![[Chanute portrait - chan_por.jpg]](ImagesCont/chan_por.jpg)
Octave Chanute - this Chicago
engineer was the 'elder statesman' of aeronautical experiments in 1900. His glider
experiments at Miller Beach in 1896 produced the most influential and significant
glider of the pre-Wright era.
These pages
contain a comprehensive discription of Octave Chanute's experiments along the south
end of Lake Michigan between 1896 and 1898. The essay "Wings Off the Dunes" provides
the story. There are writings and images of the flights in Chanute's own words in
his Diary and in an address
he gave in October of 1897. There is a general overview
of the gliders used in the experiments and special pages on the individual gliders
which attracted the attention of the press. There is an extensive reproduction of
those newspaper articles. Also on these pages
is an extended bibliography on Chanute,
maps, a page on replicas that have been build
and are on display as well as a page for those who might want to
build their own replica glider.
Learn more about Chanute's life as an engineer and inventor at the University of
Chicago's Crerar Library site:
The summer of 1996 marked the centennial of Chanute's experiments in the Indiana
Dunes. Folks from all over the country converged on Marquette Park for a celebration
and test flights of Chanute glider replicas on
July 27, 1996
The celebration was sponsored by the Chanute-Aquatorium
Society, an organization dedicated to restoring the 1920's vintage bathhouse
on Miller Beach and creating a museum to Chanute's glider experiments and the Tuskegee
Airmen of World War II
Of special interest:
![[To fly picture - to_fly2.gif]](ImagesCont/to_fly2.gif)
If
you have further interest in the invention of the airplane, Gary Bradshaw is building
a very ambitious site devoted to that subject. The site features a gallery of pre-Wright
brothers inventors and experimenters, as well as a digital library of Wright photographs
from the Library of Congress.
"To
Fly is Everything.." is the 'front page' of this web site. "To Fly is Everything..."
has a number of
Chanute's writings, including
Progress in Flying Machines that was published in 1894.
A good deal of the material on these Chanute Pages dovetail with the history of
the invention of the airplane. To provide links between the Chanute Pages and "To
Fly is Everything..." you may encounter the icon
![[ To Fly link image tofly.gif]](ImagesCont/tofly.gif)
which is a link to relevant material in Gary's pages.
Slowly coming
online at 'To Fly is Everything..." is the Chanute-Wright correspondence
from 1900 to 1910 which is vital to understanding the relationship between Chanute
and the Wright brothers. That correspondence is also a primary source of descriptions
of the Wright brothers experiments and eventual success.
Buy a paper airplane model of the Chanute Glider for $2.95... use it for a small
kite:
FiddlersGreen.net
Other Aviation Sites of Interest: