Alexander Mozhaysky

Alexander Mozhaysky was a Russian rear admiral in the Imperial Russian Navy who spent his later career researching and designing heavier-than-air aircraft. Around 1884 he built an aircraft that used a launching ramp and steam engines, with flight-control and propulsion features that were innovative for the period. Soviet-era publications once claimed the aircraft achieved the first powered flight, but research by the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute between 1971 and 1981 found that its wings lacked the aerodynamic curvature needed to generate enough lift for sustained flight. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/