The Wright Brothers - First to fly?

[rankamateur]

Came across this interesting snippet whilst investigating the "Chemtrail" CONspiracy.

 

Some believe the Wright brothers did not in fact build the world’s first successful aeroplane. German-born Gustav Whitehead should get the credit, they say, as evidence suggests he took to the sky two years earlier. They add that US institutions will not accept Whitehead’s role in the birth of aviation because of their indebtedness to the Wrights’ legacy – a 1948 contract between the estate of Orville Wright and the Smithsonian museum means it is legally obliged to call the Wright brothers the first to fly.

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Pearce from New Zealand gets a lot of credit.

 

 

[rankamateur]

I was just interested in the nature of the contract with his estate to maintain the fame - very American thing to do?

 

 

[robinsm]

Yep, perpetuate the mistake because the yanks say so, works for me...

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Aren't they credited with the first "controlled flight" rather than the "first flight" per say?

 

Hard to pinpoint who really without the instant reporting we have become so used to now, certainly Pearce was on a back foot with his isolation and Enzed's status in the greater world at the time.

 

Wright's legacy is lore.

 

 

[Yenn]

An Englishman Cayley "I think" was much earlier with controlled flight of a glider. cay;ey designed it and his caochman did the first flight. Snatched it when he landed. The Kiwis have long claimed the first flight, but then they are good at wild claims, or renaming something to make it theirs. I won't eat Kiwi fruit, but I like the Chinese goosberry.

 

It seems they are also the first to electrocute insulation installers.

 

 

[facthunter]

The thing to do with the Wright effort was "powered" and I guess it meant aeroplanes (heavier than air) as there were powered balloons in France. The Wright flyer had roll control by wing warping which even impressed the French when the Wrights eventually turned up in France, by which time there was much scepticism about whether the flyer actually flew as claimed. The Wright Flyer was subsequently built under licence in France. Nev

 

 

[robinsm]

Pearce had power and basic ailerons. I believe part of the aircraft are in a NZ museum, (possibly next to the installation installer, chinese gooseberry and tree tomato...) ;)

 

 

[turboplanner]

It will all depend on what the definitions were; I did read quite a comprehensive story on early flight which included the parameters, and the Wrights were credited, I think on some of the things mentioned above - powered flight, controlled flight, take off from ground etc.

 

There certainly were earlier balloon flights with Chinese reputed to have flown centuries earlier.

 

Of course if you really want to get serious you can look at the flying machines from Atlantis, and the Vimanas from Lemuria, and they are interesting because they contained technology we haven't rediscovered yet.

 

 

[Student Pilot]

The Wrights patented a lot of information they got from all round the world on design/flight including a lot of stuff from Lawrance Hargraves in Australia.

 

He said "Workers must root out the idea [that] by keeping the results of their labors to themselves[,] a fortune will be assured to them. Patent fees are much wasted money. The flying machine of the future will not be born fully fledged and capable of a flight for 1000 miles or so. Like everything else it must be evolved gradually. The first difficulty is to get a thing that will fly at all. When this is made, a full description should be published as an aid to others. Excellence of design and workmanship will always defy competition."

 

Wrights didn't agree with him and patented everything they could. Curtis used ailerons to overcome the patent on Wrights wingwarping.

 

 

[Marty_d]

Any votes for Icarus?

 

 

[Gnarly Gnu]

Came across this interesting snippet whilst investigating the "Chemtrail" CONspiracy.

Haha - did the same website list a cow as the first astronaut? Jumping over the moon was a giant leap for cowkind.

 

 

[facthunter]

One giant leap for MOOnkind. Nev

 

 

[Marty_d]

Pull the udder one... that's not how the Milky Way was maid...

 

 

[facthunter]

The Wright's behaved as if they had the ultimate "concept" to patent and for years just more or less sat there waiting for the money to start rolling in. The had terrible fights over patents, with Curtis who was a pretty talented bloke. Strange that the company ended up as Curtis Wright.. Santos Dumont was no dill either and the French were great engineers at about this time.

 

Hargreaves (Kites). He is on one of our notes, and particularly Lilienthal (German with Glider,) were contributors to the collective knowledge of aerodynamics that the Wrights relied upon. It is quite possible that someone else did actually fly first, but as I stated earlier the French were very impressed when they saw the actual flight of the Wright plane as it was very manoeuverable as most others turned with rudder action alone

 

While we are on the subject of the Wright plane The engine was built by a fellow called Taylor and was a four cylinder in line FOUR stroke of 16 horsepower. It ran too hot and was underpowered so was redesigned fairly quickly . Nev

 

 

[Guernsey]

Haha - did the same website list a cow as the first astronaut? Jumping over the moon was a giant leap for cowkind.

The cow jumped....I flew, check my avatar.

 

Alan.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

... if you really want to get serious you can look at the flying machines from Atlantis, and the Vimanas from Lemuria, and they are interesting because they contained technology we haven't rediscovered yet.

... and it was probably Lemuria which swallowed up that 767...

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Wilbur and Orville should be remembered for their dogged application of science to the problems of flight, but as others have said, they sure sat on their laurels after Kittyhawk. But for the likes of Glen Curtis, the USA would have been left behind in aviation because of patent battles by the Wights. When America entered WWI their aircraft industry was so far behind that they purchased warplanes from the French.

 

 

[rankamateur]

Of course if you really want to get serious you can look at the flying machines from Atlantis, and the Vimanas from Lemuria, and they are interesting because they contained technology we haven't rediscovered yet.

We have a pretty good handle on some of the weapons they used though!

 

 

[rankamateur]

Should I plan to install my mercury vortex engine as a pusher or a tractor?

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Pusher Vimanas were the preferred ride back when I flew for them.

 

 

[nong]

George Welch, in the P-86, beat Yeager through the sound barrier.

 

 

[Marty_d]

George Welch, in the P-86, beat Yeager through the sound barrier.

F-86 perhaps?

 

 

[M61A1]

Cut and paste from wiki...

 

Welch retired from the United States Air Force as a major in 1944, and became a test pilot for North American Aviation, receiving some notoriety for reportedly being the first pilot to exceed Mach 1 in the prototype XP-86 Sabre (two weeks before Chuck Yeager's record flight). Controversy exists as to the actual details of the flight and if this flight took place, it is generally not recognized as a record because of a lack of verifiable speed measurement and because the aircraft's highest speeds were attained while diving, whereas Yeager's X-1 completed the feat in level flight. In 1954,

 

 

[Marty_d]

Ah, a prototype. I stand corrected.