The whole point is of interpretation of definitions.
What is "practical"?
Is it "practical" to have an aircraft that has to take off on a rail and has to be physically carried and lifted back on to one to return to flight?
Where does a "hop" end and "sustained" flight begin?
The Wrights' first claimed flight in 1903 was a short distance into a stiff breeze. Ader's aircraft in 1896 ( with controls) also got airborne, but the flight was disallowed because it had been "lifted by a breeze". On 17th Dec 1903 the Wrights' aircraft was reportedly blown over and wrecked.
What is understood by "controlled" flight ?
By whose reckoning is two-axis aerodynamic control, with automatic stability in the third not "controlled"?
What is "acceptable" evidence of flight? ( N.B. Voisin used FAI witnesses in January 1908).
So how is the popular description of anybody "inventing" the aeroplane reasonably justified?
Last edited by Haraka; 8th Jun 2014 at 08:40.