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The first researcher on gliding flight in Russia was the Simferopol doctor Nikolai Andreyevich Arendt (1833-1893). In his article, "On the question of aeronautics," published in the 1874 journal "Knowledge", he wrote: "If a man could still fly through the air using wings in the absence of sufficient strength, then why should he not imitate the eagle, able fly without the cost of their own strength? "
Arendt conducted experiments with frozen birds with spread wings, projecting them using a crossbow and a kite. In addition, he conducted experiments with small paper models in which he studied the dynamics of gliding flight. The results of his experiments he outlined in his book "On aeronautics, based on the principles of soaring birds.", which was published in 1888 in Simferopol, a year before the book by Otto Lilienthal: "Flight of birds as the basis of the art of flying."
[In his book,] Arendt described the glider, which is called "the flying projectile": "The wings and body shell should be integral. Wings should be fixed in the sense that they still have a soaring bird. The surface of the wings should be made quite smooth."
Therefore Nicholas A. Arendt could rightly be called a forerunner of domestic gliding.
-- from the Russian:
http://xn--80aafy5bs.xn--p1ai/aviamuseum/aviatsiya/nachalo-aviastroeniya-v-rossijskoj-imperii-2/razvitie-planerizma-v-rossii/
