Who MAYBE flew before the Wrights?

[stepwilk]

Who are the main candidates for the claim of having flown before the Wrights? There was the guy in Bridgeport, Connecticut (Whitehead?) who claims to have done it at night, when it couldn't be photo-recorded, and I seem to remember that the Kiwis have a strong farmer-candidate...any others?

I'm trying to put together material for an Aviation History Magazine article, and as always, you forum-ists are my most reliable, most broadly knowledgeable resource.

[henry crun]

The Kiwi farmer you mention was Richard Pearse.
Google will produce a number of links to his achievements.

[18-Wheeler]

Yes Pearse flew before the Wrights, his best effort being a ~900 yard flight mostly out of ground effect and including a turn or two. That was 11-5-1903.
He also flew a few hundred yards a few times earlier in the year.

[FlightlessParrot]

Heavier than air, of course. But powered flight only? Else Lilienthal, who did a lot of hang gliding, and of course Sir George Cayley's coachman. And apparently Sir Hiram Maxim got daylight under his wheels. Would that count, for your purposes?

[clunckdriver]

Wasnt there a fellow in China who straped a whole bunch of rockets to a chair and went straight up? I dont think he survived the first flight.

[alisoncc]

Not sure who was the first, but have distinct memories of doing the pre-flight inspection when Pontious Pilot first went solo. Mind you I was in the RAF then. Recently asked about forms of ID back then. Replied that we didn't have 1250's, I knew the other guy. :ok:

[onetrack]

An Australian, of course! The American media has drowned out every other viable claim to the first flier... just as they claim they won every war in the 20th century... :)

HARGRAVE, Lawrence : 1850 - 1915

November 12, 1894 - Lawrence Hargrave, the Australian inventor of the box kite, linked four of his kites together, added a sling seat, and flew 16 feet. By demonstrating to a sceptical public that it was possible to build a safe and stable flying machine, Hargrave opened the door to other inventors and pioneers.

The Hargrave-designed box kite, with its improved lift-to-drag ratio, was to provide the theoretical wing model that allowed the development of the first generation of European (and American) airplanes.

NOTE - Just to add a little more fuel to the fire, Hargarave also invented the rotary engine in 1889. He has never been credited with anything by the American media, simply because Hargrave refused to patent any design, and believed in collaraborative information sharing, and willingly disbursed all the findings of his experimentation. On that basis alone, he stands head and shoulders above those who would make claims based on financial benefit to themselves.

Lawrence Hargrave, Australian aviation pioneer, 1850-1915 (http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/hargrave_bio.html)

[longer ron]

Yes Pearse flew before the Wrights, his best effort being a ~900 yard flight mostly out of ground effect and including a turn or two. That was 11-5-1903.
He also flew a few hundred yards a few times earlier in the year.

And then he woke up LOL ...priceless :ok:

I also had a good chuckle at the night flight one ...oh dearie me :D

[Capetonian]

Icarus

http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/zooms/icarus.gif


Son of Daedalus who dared to fly too near the sun on wings of feathers and wax. Daedalus had been imprisoned by King Minos of Crete within the walls of his own invention, the Labyrinth. But the great craftsman's genius would not suffer captivity. He made two pairs of wings by adhering feathers to a wooden frame with wax. Giving one pair to his son, he cautioned him that flying too near the sun would cause the wax to melt. But Icarus became ecstatic with the ability to fly and forgot his father's warning. The feathers came loose and Icarus plunged to his death in the sea.

[chevvron]

John Goodman Household, 'early 1870's' at Der Magteburg in the Karkloof area of KwazuNatal SA.

[Union Jack]

..... and a little closer to home, well my home, John Stringfellow in 1848:

Chard Museum (http://www.chardmuseum.co.uk/Powered_Flight/)

Jack

[chevvron]

But Stringfellows machine was a UAV.

[Captain Capstan]

Percy Pilcher, Augustus Herring and Octave Chanute all deserve a mention.
Pilcher had a powered triplane very nearly ready for flight in late 1899 but was killed in a flying accident when his Hawk glider suffered a structural failure. Herring and Chanute both flew gliders and Chanute corresponded regularly with the Wright brothers whose early gliders were at least based on Chanutes work.

[Jig Peter]

What about Mr. Clement Ader whose "Avion" (a nicely coined name !), was loudly proclaimed by patriotic Frenchmen (and the odd British journalist) between the 2 Wars, to have beaten the Wright Brothers by years.


Mr. Ader's machine's design was based, not on birds, but bats and was powered by a steam engine, also designed by Mr. Ader. The French military authorities showed absolutely no interest, even when "EOLE" (Avion No. III) made a hop of about 300 metres on 14th October 1897, was caught by a gust and "landed hard" and Mr. Ader took his fertile brain elsewhere, to make lots of money.


An strikingly dramatic Icarus statue cautiously dedicated to "pioneer of aviation" in Mr. Ader's memory is very visible in his home town of Muret, not far from Toulouse. For "statuarists" interested in inter-war French art and design, it's well worth the detour..

[Jhieminga]

There's an interesting list on this page: First flying machine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_flying_machine), that seems to cover most of the claimants.

[chevvron]

Surprised nobodie's mentioned Langley and his 'Aerodrome'.

[evansb]

Gustave Whitehead's half-mile flight in Bridgeport, Conn. January 1902 seems credible, but the only photos are of his aeroplane on the ground, no airborne shots exist.

[Union Jack]

But Stringfellow's machine was a UAV

Indeed it was, thank you Chev, but I would like to think that he was worth a mention.

Jack

PS Wasn't there a fellow in China who straped a whole bunch of rockets to a chair and went straight up? I dont think he survived the first flight.

Was his name "Clockett"?

[Imran_747-classic]

The montgolfier brothers in 1783 made the first hot air balloon acent in front of the open public. In 1784 they went up 12500 feet.

[stepwilk]

I probably should have specified powered, controlled flight...

[sixtiesrelic]

I read an article on the net a few years back about a German migrant in (possibly) Pittsburgh who flew a powered aircraft shortly before the Wrights and there were photos of it.
BUT the Wrights have a better image, being good old USA borne boys, than a 'Kraut mit an accent', so history declares the more acceptable story.
The article also stated that if the Smithsonian ever mentioned that Wil and Orv WEREN'T the first, the Wright family would take the Flyer back because they are only loaning it to them.

[stepwilk]

I suspect there are a number of inventors credited with "firsts" in a variety of fields--whether or not the Wrights were among them--who got the credit because of good PR (remember that Wright telegram "home soon, inform press," or whatever the exact wording was), or right-time/right-place, or simply because they documented everything.

If New Zealander Richard Pearse, for example, actually flew before the Wrights (which he might have), nobody noticed because he was a goofy farmer half a globe away from where the action was, he documented little of what he did, and he had little purpose in doing it other than to have done it. The Wrights had WAY bigger plans.

[Lancelot37]

What about George Cayley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cayley)

I've a relative who lived nearby of the same name as the servant who was put into the aircraft for the "flight." We'll never know if it was him.

John Appleby, a Cayley employee.

[stepwilk]

That's wonderful, if you're in fact a relative--fascinating part of your family tree.

Unfortunately (for my purpose), Cayley's flying machines were not powered. Hugely important nonetheless...

[stepwilk]

"a German migrant in (possibly) Pittsburgh..."

Perhaps you're thinking of Gustav Whitehead, who claimed to have flown near Bridgeport, Connecticut shortly before the Wrights did. His claim, and that of Richard Pearse, are the two most potentially valid ones. As I remember, though, Whitehead's flights were at night, and no photographic record exists.

[seacue]

There were several / many who managed to get off the ground in a flying machine before the Wrights.

What seems to me to have set the Wright's aside was that they reduced controlled flight to practice (as the patent lawyers would say). They could do it day after day.

They certainly didn't do aviation any good by initially being very secretive and then trying to control everything. As we know, their designs were left behind by progress after a few years.

[stepwilk]

You could probably say the Wrights were the entrepreneurs of early aviation, for better or worse.

[18-Wheeler]

If New Zealander Richard Pearse, for example, actually flew before the Wrights (which he might have), nobody noticed because he was a goofy farmer half a globe away from where the action was, he documented little of what he did, and he had little purpose in doing it other than to have done it.

True - he didn't seem to be too concerned about publicising it much.
Anyway, his flight in May 1903 was longer that all four of the Wright's flights in December of that year put together and they also did not make any turns like Pearse did.

[one11]

The Soviet candidate was a certain Alexander Mozhaysky in 1882

Alexander Mozhaysky - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mozhaysky)

[Sir George Cayley]

Did I hear my name mentioned?

Brompton Vale was the site. My employee the UK's first pilot. He promptly asked for an increase in pay, sparking the first aircrew industrial relations issue.

My ancestor Digby now continues the family line. The local pub named after me will serve a free pint if you mention you know me, by the way.

I was working on a motive power source but became interested in other scientific investigations, so never got round to developing the Cayley Engine.

Remember - The air is a navigable ocean that laps at everymans front door

Yours

Sir George Cayley Bart

[Lightning Mate]

Sir George Cayley Bart

Bart eh?

Did you mean Fart Sir George?

[Sir George Cayley]

Probably! And being 300 years old deadly:ok:

Sir George Cayley

[Namor]

Richard William Pearse was the first. Period.

[Jhieminga]

The first to do what?

[Planemike]

Jhieminga................

Suggest you go back and read Msgs 2 & 3 of this thread, then you will be as wise as the rest of us.....!!!

Planemike

[ian.whalley]

Alberto Santos Dumont did not fly before the Wright Brothers but his aircraft did have conventional undercarriage and took off under its own power without a catapult assist and rail as used by the Wrights.

Perhaps the first to fly in an aircraft that took off under its own power?:)

[stepwilk]

Santos Dumont did indeed make the first wheeled flight, in 1906, but it was only a short, straight-ahead hop. The first truly practical (as opposed to ramp/catapult-launched) airplane was Bleriot's 1909 monoplane.

[18-Wheeler]

Perhaps the first to fly in an aircraft that took off under its own power?

The Wright's aeroplane took off under it's own power, they did not use a catapult.
Pearse's aeroplane also took off under its own power in 1902/03.

[Wander00]

Thought the Wrights had a load on a rope over a pulley to help them down the track.

[stepwilk]

Thought the Wrights had a load on a rope over a pulley to help them down the track.

They did. -That- was the Wright catapult.

[Jhieminga]

Suggest you go back and read Msgs 2 & 3 of this thread, then you will be as wise as the rest of us.....!!!
Hello Planemike,

I was well aware of those messages and the rest of the thread, my reply was more tongue in cheek towards Namor as he may not be so aware. The question asked in the beginning of this thread was "who maybe flew before the Wrights". Within that definition the statement "Richard Pearse was the first" is a bit of a silly statement as Namor is categorically stating that Richard Pearse was a maybe.

Actually I do agree with that as I think that at the most Pearse may have left the ground, but he was not alone in doing so. Various persons managed that, including but not limited to, Cayley, Whitehead and perhaps even that Soviet fellow. The Wrights were the first to master 'controlled, heavier than air powered flight' though.

We can argue this all day long but the other names mentioned will not, as far as I can see, ever be anything more than 'maybe' in this regard. More learned minds (certainly more learned than me) have researched this and have not found any conclusive proof, therefore I don't think it will ever turn up.

[Exnomad]

A number of people were airborne before the Wrights. The Wright's advantage is that their flights were under control, and led to positive developments in design. Virtually all the others were not under control. The exception was probably (not sure of the spelling) Lillenthalls gliders

[stepwilk]

I would agree that "controlled" is the prime criterion, assuming we're talking about powered flight for all the contenders. Though the Wright Flyer was just barely controllable...

[airvanman]

Bill Frost
A barking story but you never Know?

The Frost Airship Glider was designed and constructed by William (Bill) Frost. Frost was a carpenter who was born, died and lived most of his life in Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire ,South Wales. Despite his poverty he managed to construct the "Frost Airship Glider", which seems, in principle, to have resembled a vertical takeoff aeroplane, with gas-filled tanks.

From the Patent description:
"The flying machine is propelled into the air by two reversible fans revolving horizontally. When sufficient height is gained, wings are spread and tilted by means of a lever, causing the machine to float onward and downward. When low enough the lever is reversed causing it to rise upward & onward. When required to stop it the wings are tilted so as to hold against the wind or air and lowered by the reversible fans. The steering is done by a helm fitted to front of machine."

Frost reportedly made a flight in September 1896. Observers said the machine flew about 500 metres, then crashed into bushes, outdistancing the 120 feet in 12 seconds by the Wright brothers in their first powered flight, which did not feature a vertical takeoff. During the night following the flight, a violent storm destroyed and scattered the flying machine.

To Frost's misfortune, the event, apparently witnessed, was not recorded except in local memories. Although a poor working man, Frost applied for a patent which was accepted and registered in London on 25 October 1894 under number 1894-20431. Unable to pay renewal fees, he allowed the patent to lapse four years later. He died without wealth or recognition in 1935.

Redirect Notice (http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=bill+frost+flying+machine&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1280&bih=685&tbm=isch&tbnid=zDQKCIKKfmY70M:&imgrefurl=http://theaviationanorak.********.com/2011/07/frost-airship-glider.html&docid=88FDWeIdnyXMoM&imgurl=http://3.bp.********.com/-79msl89Fc4w/TiR7FnpCY6I/AAAAAAAAAVY/NP_FUf0ttp0/s320/Capture.JPG&w=281&h=175&ei=ezrKTpvgC9HR8QPLuOUE&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=646&vpy=390&dur=3075&hovh=140&hovw=224&tx=120&ty=135&sig=113691807997423893847&page=1&tbnh=139&tbnw=202&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:15,s:0)

[IceSpike]

Flying Vikings

While it's true that they didn't actually come up with 'sail planes or hang gliders', the Vikings certainly spent a lot of time imagining flight, and indeed imagining the devices that might make it possible - their mythology is full of flight.

[Haraka]

Finally it looks like the mess unfortunately fostered largely by the Smithsonian's accolytes ( "History by Contract" etc.) is at last starting to be cleared up.
Gustave Weisskopf ( a.k.a. Whitehead) is now being given a fair hearing by Jane's .
Hopefully the efforts of many others will also now be addressed properly without the benefit of a pre -ordained agenda:
See



http://www.gustave-whitehead.com/ (http://www.gustave-whitehead.com/)

[Fareastdriver]

Middle Ages. Powered by tensioning ropes; properly aimed so as to catapult prisoners over their castle walls.

[barit1]

wander00:Thought the Wrights had a load on a rope over a pulley to help them down the track.

The 17 Dec. 1903 flights at Kill Devil Hill were assisted only by the strong and steady headwinds found there. Their launching track was level and with no accelerating device; the track merely reduced friction. This is an essential element in their patent claims. :ok:

After they returned to Dayton, further development work was accomplished by the proximity to their cycle shop. Since they no longer enjoyed the headwinds on North Carolina (substantiating the claim of "world's first airport"), they built a catapult at their flying field at Huffman Prairie. This was AFTER 1903.

[barit1]

Incidentally - their distances achieved in 1903 were measured over the ground. Given the NC headwinds, their "air miles" traveled might have been 50% (or more) greater.

[Phileas Fogg]

Timisoara, Romania:

http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/florin1961/florin19610704/florin1961070400013/868650-timisoara-romania-the-first-town-of-europe-with-streets-illuminated-by-electric-light.jpg

And apparently the original of this replica flew from there before the Wright's:

http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/46387352.jpg

[Haraka]

Note the ( flight proven) Lilienthal type wing concept in the Romanian design . Information was of course flowing all around the international aviation community in those days - even to the New World. .
Do see Whitehead's similar approach to adopting a wing plan form .

[Mac the Knife]

In surgery, procedures are rarely named after the first fella to actually do it and maybe publish an anecdotal account.

They're named after the fellas who possibly reinvented it, refined it, researched it, re-refined it, publicised it, published it and popularised it.

Bit like the Wright Bros.

Mac

:suspect:

[Haraka]

Mac.
Well, if you wish to equate surgeons with bicycle mechanics to support your argument , you're welcome.

:rolleyes:

[Brian Abraham]

Pearse himself, in two letters, the first to Dunedin’s Evening Star, published on May 10th 1915, the second published in the Christchurch Star on September 15th 1928, didn’t believe, by his own rigorous standards, that he had achieved ‘proper’ flight. For him this meant a powered take-off followed by "sustained and controlled flight". Pearse’s flights, characterised by powered take-offs followed by erratic descents, failed to meet his own criteria. In the letters he states that he set out to solve the problem of aerial navigation in February or March 1904, and acknowledges that pre-eminence should be given to the Wright brothers.

The New Zealand Edge : Heroes : Speedsters : Richard Pearse : www.nzedge.com (http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/pearse.html)

[Haraka]

Pearse was content to not exaggerate his place in aviation history, furthermore his heirs did not invoke a political machine actively engaged to suppress the claims of others:

In 1948, the Smithsonian Institute and the Wright brothers' heirs entered into a contract. The contract was kept secret until a US Senator invoked the Freedom of Information Act to force its exposure in 1976. The contract requires the Smithsonian Institute and all its affiliates/employees to state that the Wright Brothers made the first powered, controlled, sustained flight. It thereby hinders investigation of other flights before that date. Indeed, it requires that they be denied by the Smithsonian Institute. A 1978 book by Major William J. O'Dwyer (USAF) entitled 'History by Contract' was the first to comment on the Contract. It was Major J. O'Dwyer who had enlisted the US Senator's help to expose the Contract. The following text is the display label, the stipulation:
The Contract Dictates the Following Display-Label Text:


The Original Wright Brothers’ Aeroplane
The world’s First Power-Driven Heavier-than-Air Machine
In Which Man Made Free, Controlled, and
Sustained flight
Invented and Built by Wilbur and Orville Wright
Flown by Them at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
December 17, 1903
By Original Scientific Research the Wright Brothers Discovered The Principles of Human flight
As Inventors, Builders and Flyers They Further Developed the Aeroplane
Taught Man to Fly and Opened the Era of Aviation
Deposited by the Estate of Orville Wright.
( my italics)


The Contract also Contains the Following Stipulation:

Neither the Smithsonian Institution or its successors nor any museum or other agency, bureau of facilities, administered for the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA by the Smithsonian Institution or its successors, shall publish or permit to be displayed a statement or label in connection with or in respect of any aircraft model or design of earlier date than the Wright Aeroplane of 1903, claiming in effect that such aircraft was capable of carrying a man under its own power in controlled flight.

[barit1]

The Smithsonian was itself a culprit party, in that its former head, Samuel P. Langley, had attempted (with $50K taxpayer money) to be the first to fly. He made several attempts, finally failing miserably in early Dec. 1903 when his "Aerodrome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langley_Aerodrome)" took a bath in the Potomac.

But the Smithsonian did not not stop there. It contracted with one Glenn Curtiss (surely a neutral party - NOT) to "repair" the Langley machine and finally fly it. In fact Curtiss undertook major alterations of the Aerodrome, embodying a decade's worth of advancements, and did in fact fly it from his base in upstate NY about 1912. On the basis of this, the Smithsonian displayed the Aerodrome as the "first flight" machine - and Orville Wright demanded his 1903 Flyer back, and sent it to London for display in the Science Museum there.

Wright then proceeded to carefully inspect the Langley machine, and documented all of Glenn Curtiss' alterations, and published these difference in the journal of the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences. Only after the Smithsonian acknowledged their sham, and removed the Aerodrome's "claims", and agreed to Wright's contract, did the Wright Flyer return to the Smithsonian for display.

So the contract was a quid pro quo; If the Smithsonian wished to display the Flyer, and remove the cloud of dishonesty it had earned, it signed the contract.

[barit1]

One has to look at the last century-plus of powered, controlled flight, and examine what features of Pearse, Whitehead, or Langley et. al. pre-Wright machines have found employment in later aircraft.

Being an engine man myself, I will certainly admit that the 53 hp. radial engine built by Charles Manley, and used in the Langley machine, was considerably advanced over the simple Wright engine of 1903. But the engineering analysis done by the Wrights convinced them that they could be successful with a lightweight 12 hp. engine.

[Haraka]

So the contract was a quid pro quo; If the Smithsonian wished to display the Flyer, and remove the cloud of dishonesty it had earned, it signed the contract.
Absolutely agreed barit 1 .
Unfortunately it then entered into a second, equally dishonest and more binding agreement.
Regarding engines, you have perhaps also not to dismiss the pioneers who went "big" to try to address the power/weight ratio conundrum. Moshaiski and, more impressively, Maxim ( who also went for powered controls and an autopilot), stand out in this respect.

[barit1]

My account of the Wright - Smithsonian - Curtiss battles was written from memory, and while it main thrust is correct, some details leave much to be desired. A more accurate account with references is available in the WikiWorld (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers#Smithsonian_feud). :ok:

[GWFirstinFlight]

Gustave Whitehead flew before the Wrights. The evidence is in a book just published: Gustave Whitehead: First in Flight (2015).

[GWFirstinFlight]

Based on information from archives obtained from Smithsonian last year, the author of Gustave Whitehead: First in Flight published irrefutable proof that two of the five people working on the Contract labels and agreement at the Smithsonian had been steadily working to discredit Whitehead for the previous nine years. Orville had been working with these two also on it, before his death. So it actually wasn't about Langley only. No, the Contract was designed to prevent Whitehead from getting credit.

[Blacksheep]

Only after the Smithsonian acknowledged their sham, and removed the Aerodrome's "claims", and agreed to Wright's contract, did the Wright Flyer return to the Smithsonian for display.Ah! But the Science Museum produced a replica before "it" was returned.

The question of the day is - which Flyer did the Smithsonian really get? :E

[Haraka]

The "Flyer" in the Smithsonian is a "bitsa" anyway. Very little of it ( if any?) has provenance from the 1903 machine.