Marvelous Early Flying Machines
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In the years just before and after the Wright brothers' legendary flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903, the science -- and the art -- of aviation caught the public imagination like few technological pursuits before or since. The Marquis d'Ecquevilley with his multiplane (designed after Chinese lanterns) at Arles. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
An early prototype of the "Flying Doughnut." (Time Life Pictures/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
(Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
German aviator Otto Lilienthal (1849 - 1896) demonstrating the first glider he invented. (Rischgitz/Getty Images)
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Horatio Phillips' "Venetian Blind" multiplane, possibly the first aircraft ever to fly in Britain. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Here, an experimental biplane, designed by Louis Paulhan. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.life.com/gallery/36582/marvelous-early-flying-machines#index/0">See the full gallery</a> of beautiful early flying contraptions at Life.com. (Branger/Getty Images)