In the 1770s, Jean Pierre François Blanchard worked on designing heavier-than-air flying machines, including one based on a theory of rowing in the air currents with oars and a tiller. One machine consisted of an enclosed cabin in which a man’s pedaling with both arms and legs would be amplified by gears and transferred to the flapping wings outside. A machine that flies by flapping its wings became known as a ornithopter.

In 1809, Jacob Degen claimed he had successfully flown in an ornithopter. However, this was not strictly true as his machine was tethered to a large hot-air balloon. Degen actually used his wings to provide him just enough lift to rise with the help of the balloon. He repeated this performance several times in Paris and Vienna between 1806 to 1817.

A Belgian, the Brugge-born Vincent de Groof, also attempted to get an ornithopter to fly. He moved to London where he built his flying machine. On 8th July, 1874, Groof, who called himself the Flying Man, launched his ornithopter from a shuttle balloon piloted by Charles Simmons. The ornithopter failed to work and Vincent de Groof fell 80 feet (24.3 m) to his death.