PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - The Wright brothers just glided in 1903. They flew in 1908.
Old 4th Jun 2014, 05:07
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simplex1
 
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The article "The Wright Aeroplane and its Performances", Scientific American, April 7, 1906, pag. 291-292 mentions a single witness name, out of 11 alleged witnesses that answered the letters addressed to them.
see: Scientific American Volume 94 Number 14 (April 1906)

This witness is Charles Webbert who was identified as having a niece named Henrietta Webbert who was the whife of Charlie Taylor the mechanic who allegedly built the 1903 engine that powered the first plane built by the Wright brothers.
see: The Dayton Flight Factory: The Wright Brothers and the Birth of Aviation - Timothy R. Gaffney - Google C?r?i

The witness is highly suspicious and also his letter brought nothing new. He wrote there things told before by the Wright brothers.

Same witness is quoted 1 year latter, in 1907, as saying:
""I wish I could control my automobile as well as Orville Wright managed his flying machine." said Mr. Webbert."
Source: "Fly Over St. Louis at 50 Miles an Hour", Apr. 21, 1907, http://www.loc.gov/resource/mwright.05001/#seq-65

It looks like Webbert acted as an advertiser of the two brothers.

Last edited by simplex1; 4th Jun 2014 at 05:33.
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