I have to say that in studying the Wrights for over thirty years, using primary source documents that rarely have seen the light of day, their true story is far from that which we have been spoonfed. First of all, the "evidence" for what occurred on Dec. 17, 1903, is based entirely on the stories told us by the Wrights themselves, who had just a "wee" conflict of interest at the time of the first tellings. Orville was trying to capture the limelight even while Wilbur was alive - his stories increasingly gave himself credit he didn't deserve (and admitted to this in the earlier years). Reading their letters at the Library of Congress, and rarely seen files at Smithsonian attest to this. But there is far more!
For instance, we have been bamboozled for well over a century about who was "first in flight". It was necessary for the Wrights to claim being first in flight in order to expand their patent rights as pioneer inventors. While they deserve credit for their development of the art, there is at least one other who flew before them and Curtis, who also further developed the art. There are those who contributed to what we use today who also deserve credit. But after Wilbur died (in 1912, during the patent wars), Orville, known as "the lesser brother", did a poor job with the Wright Company and had to sell it, then devoting his life to immortalizing himself for that which he did not do. During their shared lifetimes, Wilbur was the one who was considered to have flown "successfully" on Dec. 17, 1903, even though the flights were all out of control and the last one (the longest, Wilbur's) crashed into the sand. They took off from a rail and required a headwind that was not present during the Centennial celebration in 2003, when all the world saw the Flyer reproduction fail to fly. When Orville died in 1948, his executors arranged for an Agreement (known by most as "the Contract" to be signed by the Smithsonian crediting Orville as "first in flight" even though he wasn't, if it was between the two brothers, it was Wilbur on that date. As Orville and the executors and Orville's closest friends knew, Gustave Whitehead of CT had an existing claim to that title, over two years before (in 1901). In fact, Whitehead had flown in Pennsylvania and crashed, in 1899 (since crashing and being out of control apparently is ok). What the Smithsonian got from that deal was the Wright Flyer for $1. Under the terms of the Contract, the Flyer will revert to the heirs if Smithsonian or any of its nearly 200 affiliates or research facilities recognizes anyone else as first in flight or any other airplane.This was, indeed, "history by contract", and a sorry mess it has caused. Currently, Gustave Whitehead, with his 18 witnesses who watched him fly with power ahead of the Wrights, from 1899-1902, has been recognized (as of March 2013) as "first in flight" by Jane's All the World Aircraft (the bible of aviation history) and by the state of CT. The state of NC is giving up its slogan "first in flight" as a result and adopting another shortly. The Wrights were a wily pair, don't forget they not only waited 5 years to show they could fly, and to produce the photo of Orville's FAILED flight, but they pulled many legal tricks to try to sue all other inventors and aviators, to control world aviation and profit whenever anyone flew or sold a plane for profit. They trotted their invention around to sell to European countries on the brink of war, knowing full well what their planes could be used for. In their own time, they were not known to be saints, this is a fact. And in fact, they were not. Ultimately, Orville stole the title of first in flight posthumously acquired through his closest friends and family, this was the dream of his life and they gave it to him. So don't be so sure you know history if you haven't read the documents. Go to
www.gustavewhitehead.info for more information on this topic.
