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“[Lilienthal] was without question the greatest of the precursors, and the world owes to him a great debt." Wilbur Wright September 1912

Otto Lilienthal,1848–1896 The most influential glider pioneer was Otto Lilienthal, a German engineer who began his aeronautical research in 1871 by studying bird flight. After nearly two decades of imaginative experimentation and research, he produced the best and most complete body of aerodynamic data up to that time. He published his results in Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst (Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation) in 1889.

Lilienthal gliders
Following his program of data collection, Lilienthal constructed and tested a series of elegant, full-size gliders. Between 1891 and 1896 he made nearly 2,000 brief flights in 16 different glider designs based on his aerodynamic research.

An abrupt and tragic end
On August 9, 1896, while flying one of his monoplane gliders, Lilienthal stalled and crashed. He died from his injuries the following day. The Wright brothers later cited his death as the point when their serious interest in flight research began.

You knew the answer to your question, already, didn't you?

The drawbacks of Lilienthal's method of control Otto Lilienthal controlled his glider by shifting his body weight from side to side, which altered the craft’s center of gravity and caused it to turn. The Wrights recognized that this technique severely limited the size of the aircraft, because the pilot and craft had to be similar in weight for body shifting to be effective. They reasoned that if they could control balance aerodynamically—using the forces air exerts on a wing—they could build an aircraft of any size and weight.

Did the Wright brothers utilize any of the aerodynamic discoveries of Otto Lilienthal, the German glider designer and pilot?

They started out using them but found out they were flawed. The Wright brothers built their own(and the absolute first ever)wind tunnel in order to get the correct math for the wing. Until they built the wind tunnel they relied on faulty math from Lilienthal and others and their machines had poor lifting ability. After the wind tunnel they wre able to make a better wing and get their powered machine off the ground. The wrights were truly pioneers in the aviation field and others, such as Curtis, soon built on their work. They were also the first to use ailerons in the form of wing warping in order to turn correctly in the air. Other early pilots and builders used only rudders, but after seeing a Wright flyer in action they soon Made their own versions, violating the Wrights patents(Curtis was among them)which they spent years in court trying to get justice for.

Did the Wright brothers utilize any of the aerodynamic discoveries of Otto Lilienthal, the German glider designer and pilot?

Yes, in a sort of way. The assessed the literature on airfoils, including Lilienthal's tables of lift vs. drag for a few wing shapes.

Being cautious, the Wrights tried to replicate the findings in their own wind tunnel and found them completely at variance with the published tables. They went with their own data.