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Poor Gustave Whitehead. Overlooked yet again... maybe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Whitehead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Whitehead

MegaButts 10y ago
Reading this makes me wonder how accurate our historical records are. And then I think of this. http://pbfcomics.com/209/ http://pbfcomics.com/209/
- dghughes 10y ago
  Look at the Alaskan panhandle dispute you'd think Canada (British controlled at the time) wanted to give the land to US. Roosevelt threatened to send in Marines to take it by force just because he wanted it. We did not want to give up anything but you get stuck in the middle of back-stabbing politicians and a war monger president you don't have much choice. History is written by the victors.
emmelaich 10y ago
And Lawrence Hargrave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_flying_machines#Kites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_flying_machines#Kites Not powered, but still a significant pioneer. That whole WP page gives a good perspective.
lostlogin 10y ago
Richard Pearce is our contender for first flight - possibly before the Wright brothers. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pearse https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pearse
justforFranz 10y ago
Poor Franz Reichelt, also, sadly...overlooked. But he did make a great movie and left quite an impression. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Reichelt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Reichelt
rebootthesystem 10y ago
I think the huge difference between the Wright brothers and everyone before (and contemporary) to them was that they devoted a non-trivial amount of time to the testing, measurement and understanding of airfoils in their wind tunnel. Before that everyone was guessing. They produced accurate scientific data before deciding how to build their next generation aircraft. Revelations such as wing aspect ratio as a performance factor were crucial. Wing and propeller airfoil selection was also done scientifically. NASA has a great deal of information about this. https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/wrights/results.html https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/wrights/results.h...

MegaButts 10y ago

Reading this makes me wonder how accurate our historical records are. And then I think of this. http://pbfcomics.com/209/ http://pbfcomics.com/209/

dghughes 10y ago
Look at the Alaskan panhandle dispute you'd think Canada (British controlled at the time) wanted to give the land to US. Roosevelt threatened to send in Marines to take it by force just because he wanted it. We did not want to give up anything but you get stuck in the middle of back-stabbing politicians and a war monger president you don't have much choice. History is written by the victors.

emmelaich 10y ago

And Lawrence Hargrave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_flying_machines#Kites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_flying_machines#Kites Not powered, but still a significant pioneer. That whole WP page gives a good perspective.

lostlogin 10y ago

Richard Pearce is our contender for first flight - possibly before the Wright brothers. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pearse https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pearse

justforFranz 10y ago

Poor Franz Reichelt, also, sadly...overlooked. But he did make a great movie and left quite an impression. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Reichelt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Reichelt

rebootthesystem 10y ago

I think the huge difference between the Wright brothers and everyone before (and contemporary) to them was that they devoted a non-trivial amount of time to the testing, measurement and understanding of airfoils in their wind tunnel. Before that everyone was guessing. They produced accurate scientific data before deciding how to build their next generation aircraft. Revelations such as wing aspect ratio as a performance factor were crucial. Wing and propeller airfoil selection was also done scientifically. NASA has a great deal of information about this. https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/wrights/results.html https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/wrights/results.h...