Wright and Wrong

[Ira Heilveil]

Ask Americans who was the first to take flight, and they will almost certainly say it was one of the Wright Brothers. Ask that question in France, and they will tell you not only that the French invented aviation altogether, but they will reel off the names of Charles Renard, Henri Giffard and Arthur Krebs—all French of course. In Italy, they will mention DaVinci, although there is no record of Leo ever actually lifting off. They will, however, mention Tito Burattini, who successfully lifted a cat into flight in 1648 (but not himself)....http://cftblog.com

 

 

[rgmwa]

In America, some may also say that it was Gustave Whitehead. Not everyone agrees of course.

 

rgmwa

 

 

[flying dog]

There is also the story of some English person who made a plane/glider and got his butler/man servant to fly in it down a hill.

 

 

[rgmwa]

There is also the story of some English person who made a plane/glider and got his butler/man servant to fly in it down a hill.

Perfectly understandable. Somebody had to watch to see what happened, and the designer would clearly be the best person to do that. I'd probably do the same if it was me.

 

rgmwa

 

 

[kgwilson]

Richard Pearse from Timaru in NZ built & flew a powered heavier than air machine on 31 March 1903, 9 months before the Wright Brothers. He even designed & built the engine. His flights were not very controlled but his design bore much more resemblance to modern microlights that of the Wright Brothers being a monoplane with a tractor propellor.

 

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pearse