Carl Friedrich Meerwein, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Carl Friedrich Meerwein

German aviator and inventor

Date of Birth: 02-Aug-1737

Place of Birth: Sasbach am Kaiserstuhl, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Date of Death: 01-Jan-1810

Profession: engineer, aircraft pilot, civil engineer

Nationality: Germany

Zodiac Sign: Leo

Carl Friedrich Meerwein (2 August 1737 in Leiselheim – 6 December 1810 in Emmendingen) was a German civil engineer and aviation pioneer. He built flying devices with moving wings.
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica he succeeded in flying with one of these devices, an ornithopter in 1781, at Giessen, Germany.
Further attempts were less successful.
There is a legend that he only survived one of his flights in 1784 because he hit exactly upon a dung pile."Meerwein, the architect of the Prince of Baden, built an orthopteric machine, and protested against the tendency of the aerostats which had just been invented." (Verne, Robur) Meerwein died as a result of a fall from a horse.