Jean-Marie LeBris and his Artificial Albatros glider

Jean-Marie Le Bris built a glider shaped like an albatross, a bird he had studied on his sea voyages. The body of the craft, which would support the pilot, was shaped like a canoe. Each narrow, arching wing was 23 feet (7 meters) long and adjustable by pulleys and cords. They provided a lifting surface of 215 square feet (20 square meters).
Le Bris tested this aircraft in 1857 and successfully made a short glide on his first try, but a second attempt resulted in a crash and a broken leg. By 1868, Le Bris had developed a larger version of his glider which made several successful manned test flights before it, too, crashed and was destroyed.

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What people say... We never know if we should believe 'eye witness accounts' of these really early flights but because there is an actual photograph of this glider we can decide for ourselves a little easier. A couple things work in LeBris' favor. The lavish 50ft wingspan and the ability to play with the angle attack of the wings. It looks to be pretty well balanced fore and aft but with a dangerously high CG due to the pilot standing upright. It's a bit troubling to see no vertical tail surfaces and extremely short fuselage that would certainly cause stability problems at the presumed slow launching speed. Like the stories say, it flew but crashed often. chip A Le Bris! You did a Le Bris! Good on you. In the other part of my life--when I'm not building paper models--I build and fly big (usually) show kites. I have a great interest in pioneering gliders that can be designed to fly as kites, and the Le Bris has been on my mind. All I could find anywhere on it is the same photo you found, and the rough three views. OK, so it was enough for you, maybe it is enough for me. Now my head will be working overtime again. Thanks for this--and everything else...John F