Mouillard studied at the School of Fine Arts at
Lyon and Paris but settled in Algeria at Mitidja after the death of his father. Here he constructed several gliders before returning to France in 1865. Around this time he managed to glide 138 feet at about 30 feet height. He also described the use of a screw to provide lift and propulsion to a glider in 1890. He was appointed a professor of drawing at the Cairo Polytechnic in 1866 during which time he took a lot of interest in the flight of vultures. He studied the requirements of gliding flight in birds. In 1897 his design was patented in the United States of America by
Octave Chanute. His biographer Arthur Henry Couannier posthumously published a book on gliding flight in 1912 titled
Le vol sans battement (flight without flapping). He foresaw the use of aluminium as the metal of choice for aircraft and was possibly the first - with the possible exception of British engineer
M.P.W. Boulton in 1868 - to introduce control surfaces to the wing. Mouillard realized the importance of wings, gliding and the future of aviation at a time when balloons were considered the only practical way to carry humans and flapping machines had failed. He inspired the work of many others including
Octave Chanute and
Otto Lilienthal. Mouillard was described by Wilbur Wright as one of the greatest missionaries of the flying cause. The base of the pedestal bears the word
Oser! meaning "dare" which he had printed on the cover of his book. The vulture in front of the pedestal is based on his illustration used in his 1881 book. Rue Pierre-Mouillard is a Paris street named in his honour. File:Vulture_Mouillard.jpg|Vulture inspiration File:Mouillard patent-2.jpg|1897 patent File:Mouillard_memorial_Cairo.jpg|Memorial at Cairo in 1912 ==See also==