Gustave Whitehead, of Bridgeport, CT, used a design based on Lilienthal's gliders to develop and fly a manned, powered, heavier-than-air flying machine in 1901 and 1902, at Fairfield, Bridgeport, and Stratford, CT. This is a matter of record with extensive documentation. He predated the Wrights into the air by two years four months and three days, making a sustained flight on August 14, 1901. Earlier manned powered flight tests occurred in Bridgeport, CT, on their streets in the West End, a somewhat rural section. He flew over the entire neighborhood as well, that summer. The Wrights needed to be considered "first" when they started suing everyone, trying to control world aviation and get paid if anyone else flew for profit or built airplanes. They were reviled for this then. This IS the history, it is evident in the media of the era and in countless communications of the era, including those of the Wrights and their inner circle. In latter days we have been fed a lie - that the Wrights were saintly do-gooders who could do no wrong. That is not the case. A new book, "Birdmen", is much more realistic on those points, as was "Pendulum" by Jack Carpenter, and "History by Contract" by O'Dwyer - all of these were meticulously researched. What we may not realize is that the pablum we're being fed by our so-called authorities on aviation history in this country are spoonfeeding false history for many reasons. One is a Contract with the Wright heirs, to obtain and keep the "Wright Flyer" for $1. If ever the Wrights are declared not to have flown first, the premiere Smithsonian exhibit reverts to the heirs. Thus you have the endless falsifications institutionalized at present. The original claim to "first flight" by the Wrights was necessary for broad patent application. If they were not first, there was no world control. I have the research, it is solid. They weren't first, not at all.
Gustave Whitehead First to Fly