The Wright's documented everything.
Spot on
Blacksheep. Disregarding everything else, this is where the Wrights claim stands the test of time. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale will not accept any claim unless it is supported by
How to set a record - The following information is valid for World and Continental Records of all sports and disciplines.
Check on the FAI record pages what the best previous performance is, if any, for the record you would like to set. Do not forget to check the record claims pending homologation.
Review the FAI Sporting Code, General Section and relevant Specialised Section, to get an understanding of the rules and documentation requirements.
For the definition of the course used for your record attempt, you will need the exact distance given by the World Distance Calculator.
Obtain an FAI sporting license from your National Airsport Control Organisation (NAC) if you do not already hold a valid one.
Your flight or jump will have to be properly monitored and controlled. Determine with your NAC who will serve as Official Observer(s). If the flight is a 'speed over a recognised course' record between 2 airports, each with a control tower, the tower personnel are entitled to certify the times of start and finish.
You should get in touch with your Official Observer(s) to discuss the flight or jump and the procedures for documenting the record.
The fun part.... you make the performance !
Within 7 days of the record attempt, FAI must be officially notified that the flight or jump was successful and provided with basic details of the performance, preferably using the Standard Preliminary Claim Form. Fax or email are acceptable.
Send your NAC the complete details of the flight or jump (on the prescribed forms if applicable) including any evidence required such as photographs, barograms.
After your NAC receives and reviews the documentation file, your record should be certified as a National Record.
If a World or Continental Record is being claimed, your NAC must then forward a complete dossier containing the original evidence to FAI in Lausanne within 120 days requesting that FAI approves the record as a World or Continental Record.
Please note that FAI charges NACs an administrative fee of CHF 200 for processing each World or Continental record dossier. NACs may decide to pass this charge on to claimants.
History of the FAI. It seems from the earliest days people were cognisant of the issues surrounding claims of who did what, and the need of proof to back up those claims.
At the start of the 20th Century, the pioneering flights of pilots such as Clement Ader, the Wright Brothers and Santos-Dumont, the proliferation of aeronautical competitions, and increasingly rapid technological advances marked the real birth of the modern aviation era.
A small group of men recognized the growing need for an international federation to coordinate and give direction to the rapidly growing aeronautical activity.
On 10 June 1905, Count Henri de la Vaulx, Vice President of the Aero Club of France, Major Moedebeck of the German Airship League and Fernand Jacobs, President of the Aero Club of Belgium, gave a presentation to the Olympic Congress of Brussels on their proposal for a "Fédération Aéronautique Internationale". The delegates received the idea warmly, and in token of its support the Olympic Congress adopted thefollowing resolution:"This Congress, recognizing the special importance of aeronautics, expresses the desire that in each country, there be created an Association for regulating the sport of flying and that thereafter there be formed a Universal Aeronautical Federation to regulate the various aviation meetings and advance the science and sport of Aeronautics."
On 12 October 1905, an international aeronautical conference was convened in Paris. After two days of debate, the representatives of Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the USA adopted the entire package of proposed Statutes. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale was founded on 14 October 1905. From its inception, the FAI defined its principal aims as being to"methodically catalogue the best performances achieved, so that they be known to everybody; to identify their distinguishing features so as to permit comparisons to be made; and to verify evidence and thus ensure that record-holders have undisputed claims to their titles." The statutes also specified that each body holding sporting powers (i.e. the national members of FAI) should retain full and autonomous control over its own affairs.