Image Caption: Gustave Whitehead with his Number 21 plane. Credit: Gustave Whitehead Research Committee / Weisskopf
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
When it comes to the
Wright Bros, history books have it wrong, according to the Connecticut state government.
Orville and Wilbur Wright are historically known as the first to
successfully take powered flight, taking their Wright Flyer into the
skies around Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina on December 17, 1903.
However, the Connecticut Senate on Wednesday (June 5) passed a bill that
essentially strips that title away from the aeronautical duo, and
passes the torch onto another who had taken the first flight a few years
earlier.
Gustave Whitehead,
a German immigrant living in Boston and New York, is claimed by at
least one Connecticut newspaper to be the first to fly, lifting off for a
ten minute flight over Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1901.
A Bridgeport Sunday Herald
report
dated August 18, 1901 gives the account of the first successful flight
in exciting detail. The report has also been supported by a respected
aviation reference guide, which could cause some uproar with the
Smithsonian, which has long held the Wright Bros as the inventors of powered flight. In fact, a “
contract”
between the Smithsonian and the estate of Orville Wright requires the
institution to refer to the Wright Bros as the first in flight.
However, if the Connecticut bill becomes law – it awaits passage now –
it would rewrite history books everywhere. Not only have the Wrights
been labeled as American pioneers of aviation in history books, but they
have appeared on postage stamps and US currency. Even the state of
North Carolina labels its license plates with the phrase “First in
Flight.”
The Smithsonian’s aviation historian, Tom Crouch, said in a
blog
in April that the claims that Whitehead was the first in powered flight
are not legitimate. He gives a detailed analysis of why Whitehead’s
claims are unwarranted. “Justice is at risk. Credit should go where
credit is deserved,” he wrote.
He wrote that experts tried to find witnesses quoted in the
Bridgeport Sunday Herald story. But only one of two named witnesses
could be found and that witness said the flight never happened,
according to Crouch.
As well, Whitehead never kept any documents detailing his experiments in flight, Crouch wrote.
Paul Jackson, editor of “Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft,” which has
endorsed the Whitehead claim, wrote in the publication’s 100th
anniversary edition: “An injustice is rectified with only slight
bruising to Wilbur and Orville’s reputation. The Wrights were right; but
Whitehead was ahead.”
Jackson pointed to research unearthed by an Australian aviation
historian, John Brown. Brown says he has found photographic evidence
that backs up the Whitehead flight. While rummaging through a museum
attic in Germany last year, Brown said he found a lost photo that may
depict the plane in flight.
“It was quite an emotional moment for me. I just jumped up in the air screaming,” Brown told
CNN’s Thom Patterson, referring to the moment when experts confirmed the photo was authentic.
However, according to Crouch, the image is too blurry and doesn’t depict an airplane at all.
Brown concurs that the image is too blurry to offer definitive proof,
but noted that it does lend credence to the fact that journalists and
witnesses were on hand during the 1901 flight. By the 1930s, more than a
dozen witnesses had been found that reported seeing the plane in the
skies; at least 14 witnesses were notarized. Based on the testimonials,
Brown believes Whitehead did indeed fly before the Wrights.
As for the contract between the estate of Orville Wright and the
Smithsonian, one particular clause demonstrates that even the Wright
Bros may have known of Whitehead’s earlier attempt in flight. The clause
states that if the Smithsonian ever tries to claim that another person
had made flight before the Wright Bros, it would lose its right to host
the Wright Flyer in its museum.
Crouch said the Smithsonian is not bound by that clause. “If I found
evidence that I think indicated somebody else had flown before the
Wrights, I would say so.”
Connecticut State Rep. Charles Clemons Jr., a sponsor of the bill to
name Whitehead as the true first in flight pioneer, acknowledged that
there is reasoning behind the bill’s passage. If Whitehead was to be
named first in flight, it “will put Bridgeport on the map.” It would
also mean money and prestige. The city would “become synonymous with
being first in flight, which would enable us to have a museum. With
that, we would generate some tourist attractions.”
“We were surprised. Pleasantly surprised,” Whitehead’s great-grandson Curtis Mitchell told
NY Daily News, referring to his family’s reaction to the passage of the bill.
“Ever since I was maybe 2 1/2 years old, whenever my grandmother Rose
would babysit me, she would sit me on her lap and pull out the photo
album and tell me stories,” Mitchell recalled to the Daily News. “We’re
all happy with what has transpired.”
While Crouch says Brown, Jane’s and others continue to try to uproot
the Wright’s as first in flight, they are not the only ones trying to
take away the thunder. He told CNN that millions of Brazilians believe
their aviation pioneer, Alberto Santos-Dumont, was the actual man who
invented the airplane. “Brazil claims Santos-Dumont was first because
his aircraft had wheels, and the Wright’s launched on rails,” Crouch
noted.
Also, Ohio has gotten in on the action, vying for some recognition as
being the state where the Wright Bros conspired. Dayton, which is the
Wright’s hometown, was where they worked on most of their plans to
become the first in flight.
As for Whitehead, Brown is positive that he will gain national
recognition for his efforts, especially when it comes to re-writing
history books. “I don’t think there’s any question about that. They
can’t ignore it now, it’s developed too far now,” Brown said.
Smithsonian Communications Director Claire Brown said that if any
other plane was ruled to be the first in flight, the only thing that
will change at the Smithsonian is that the Wright Flyer would go back to
the estate of Orville Wright.
