Wilhelm Kress (1836-1913) was an aviation pioneer working in
Wilhelm Kress (1836-1913) was an aviation pioneer working in
Austria. Between 1898 and 1901, he constructed a seaplane, the Drachenflieger
(in English: hang glider), for the water takeoff. He couldn't find a suitable
place on land for takeoff attempts and hoped that the water would limit the
severity of any accidents. Kress ordered an engine from Daimler in Stuttgart; however,
the engine was twice as heavy as Kress had specified in his order and developed
only half of its nominal power output. On 3 October 1901, during one of the tests,
a wing touched the water during a sharp turn and Kress’s plane capsized and
sank. It represented nevertheless the first attempt to fly a heavier-than-air craft
powered by a gasoline engine.