Flights Before the Wrights: Octave Chanute, Chicago aeronautical pioneer, engineer, teacher

Web Exhibits: Crerar Library The University of Chicago Library
  • Introduction and About the Exhibit
  • Acknowledgements
  • Rights and Reproductions
  • Coming to America
  • Engineering
  • Accomplishments
  • Aeronautics
  • World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago
  • Spreading the Word
  • The Next Step
  • Building and Testing Gliders
  • Lilienthal-Type Machine
  • Katydid
  • "How Does it Feel to Fly?"
  • The Experiments Continued
  • 1896 Chanute-Type Biplane
  • Would Be Aviators Contacted Him
  • The Wright Brothers
  • The Last Major Article by Chanute
  • Highlights from Aviation History
  • Space

The Next Step

By 1895, the first phase of Chanute’s own aeronautical career was complete. The time had come to go beyond speeches, conferences and theoretical studies. To maintain his leadership in American aeronautical community, he began active gliding experiments.

A model of Octave Chanute's 1895 “Ladder-kite”, flown at Huron Street Beach in the spring of 1895, is on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

Book Plate

Book plate from La Navigation Aerienne L'Aviation et la Direction des Aerostats dan les temps anciens et modernes by Gaston Tissandier, Paris, 1886.
Chanute's collection of some one thousand volumes and pamphlets on aviation and engineering were given by the heirs to the John Crerar Library early in 1911. Most of these items are still available for research at the current John Crerar Library and Special Collection at Regenstein. This bookplate represents the holding.

 
Exhibit Case Photo of Exhibit Case courtesy of Anna Hasior.
Flights Before the Wrights: Octave Chanute, Chicago aeronautical pioneer, engineer, teacher
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