Ferdinand Ferber Ferdinand Ferber ( February 8 , 1862 - September 22 , 1909 ) was a French Army officer who played an important role in the development of aviation during the early 1900s . Although his attempts to build aircraft were generally unsuccessful , his early recognition and publicizing of the work of the Wright Brothers was a major influence on the development of aviation in Europe . Early life . Born in Nice in 1862 , he studied at the Ecole Polytechnique before joining the Army , eventually becoming an instructor the School of Applied Artillery at Fontainbleu in 1896 . It was here that he came across the work of Otto Lillienthal , through reading about his work in an article in the " Illustrierte Zeitung . " Aviation experiments . Early attempts . After some experimentation with models Ferber constructed his first full - size unmanned glider , which had a lozenge - shaped wing about across , and unsuccessfully attempted to fly it from a launching tower at his family ' s estate in Rue in Switzerland in August 1898 . He then constructed a similar but smaller second machine , which he attempted to fly both as a kite and by towing it behind a horse , also without much success . In early 1901 Ferber was tranferred from Fontainbleu to Nice , where he was placed in command of the 17th Alpine Battery of the 19th Regiment . Here he continued his experiments : his third attempt was more closely modelled on the pattern of Lillienthal ' s gliders , and was Ferber ' s first attempt at building a man - carrying glider . Trial were made at Saint - Etienne - de - Tinée , but the wing area proved insufficient for the purpose , and so a fourth , larger , glider was constructed . Contact with Chanute . In 1901 Ferber became aware of the aeronautical experiments of Octave Chanute , a French - born American civil engineer , as a result of reading an article in the " Revue Scientifique " published in the issue dated 1 June 1901 . Ferber wrote to Chanute , and through him learnt of the experiments of the Wright Brothers , receiving a copy of the Wilbur Wright ' s paper " Some Aeronautical Experiments " which had been published in the " Journal of the Western Society of Engineers " in December 1901 . Ferber then built his fifth aircraft , based on photographs of the Wright ' s 1901 glider . This resembled the Wright glider in being a two - bay biplane with a forward elevator , but the resemblance ends there . As with Ferber ' s previous aircraft , the construction was crude in the extreme , the wings consisting merely of a simple framework of bamboo loosely covered with fabric , entirely lacking the ribs which formed the wings of the Wright ' s glider into a lift - giving aerofoil section . Moreover there was no attempt at lateral control . The connection between lateral and directional control was the key discovery of the Wright Brothers , and although their 1901 glider lacked a rudder the use of wing warping was clearly described in the paper by Wilbur Wright . Ferber ' s experiments with this aircraft were encouraging , and an account of his work written by Ferber under his pseudonym " de Rue " was published in the February 1903 issue of " l ' Aérophile " . Ferber did not attend Chanute ' s lecture to the Aero Club de France in April 1903 , but after hearing of it he wrote to Ernest Archdeacon , one of the founder members of the Aero Club . His letter asked Archdeacon to use his influence to get the Aero Club to announce a prize for a glider flight , and contained the exhortation : Ferber then built another aircraft very similar to his 1902 glider . This differed principally in having a pair of triangular rudders mounted on the aft outboard interplane struts . This aircraft was then fitted with a 6 hp ( 4 kW ) Buchet engine , driving a pair of coaxially mounted propellers , in which form it was called the Type V - bis . Between September 1903 and October 1904 a number of attempts at flight were made , and he also constructed a tall latticework tower supporting a long counterbalanced revolving arm from which the aircraft was suspended . Ferber wrote that trials of this machine " were completely useless , but drew public attention to aviation " In April 1904 Ferber assisted Ernest Archdeacon with the trials of his Wright - derived glider at Berck - sur - Mer . Shortly after this Charles Renard , commander of the French Army balloon school at Chalais Meudon , invited Ferber to join this establishment , and he took up this new post in early May 1904 . He also constructed another aircraft , the Type VI , notable for its use of a rear - mounted horizontal stabiliser and also featuring dihedral in an attempt to obtain lateral stability . In June 1905 Ferber wrote to the Wright Brothers offering to buy one of their machines . The Wrights were unwilling to do this but their reply , dated 9 October 1905 , detailed the flights they had recently made , and so Ferber was the first European to learn of these achievements . After the death of Renard in April 1905 Ferber ' s relationship with the authorities at Chalais Meudon deteriorated and in June 1906 he asked for three years leave , in order to work at the Antoinette company . This was granted in August 1906 , and he also allowed to continue his experiments at Chalais - Meudon . In 1908 , Ferber founded the " Ligue Nationale Aérienne " with the help of the well - known physiologist René Quinton . Quinton was a member of a Parisian group of literary personalities called the " Forty - five , " who honored achievements in literature , sciences and arts . In May 1908 Ferber addressed the group at Quinton ' s suggestion and after receiving a standing ovation for his accomplishments in aviation , Quinton was inspired to establish a 10 , 000 francs prize for the first person to fly for 5 minutes with engine stopped and without losing more than 50 metres altitude . In May 1909 the " Ligue " opened a flying school at Juvisy , with Ferber as its chief instructor . Death . Captain Ferber was killed on 22 September 1909 at a flying meeting in Boulogne : when , attempting a turn at low altitude in a Voisin biplane one wing struck the ground In June 1910 , the French Minister of War announced that one of their newly ordered Zodiac dirigibles was to be named " Capitaine Ferber " , and a memorial in the form of monolith bearing a bronze flying eagle was erected at Boulogne .