A safe landing, then a fatal flightSourced
His bat-like flying machine worked once. Ten days later, it crashed.
On 29 June 1874, Vincent de Groof descended from a balloon in his winged apparatus and landed safely near London. On 9 July, a second descent went wrong close to the ground; the craft pitched forward and he died after the crash. Early flight experiments carried immense personal risk.
One successful test was no guarantee for the next.
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Vincent de Groof · Wikimedia contributors
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Reviewed: 2026-10-01