The rest of the world didn't do much did they?
 

Hmmmmm

G

Wonder what's happened since 2002?

I see 1999 was Harriet Quimby, I think her brother Fred was more worthy......

Tarnished

Good old Fred! - well, someone had to say it:p

My dad did a good job. His attempts at 'scientific' reproduction proved to be a classic. Eight of us have been carrying on the good work! :ooh:

America has always had the greatest people in any field.

Just look at their two greatest comedians, Bob Hope and Stan Laurel :E

And John Wayne did not win WW2 :p

RE: The rest of the world didn't do much did they?
 

ER...

I suppose Alcock & Brown don't count because they missed the Azores !!

"First Direct Trans Atlantic Flight"

Sorry JDK should have made that clearer !!

TTFN

If you read the entry it does grudgingly mention that A&B did the first continuous crossing 2 weeks later!

G

RE: The rest of the world didn't do much did they?
 

Genghis,

Oop's, I should have gone further in !!.. But I agree with Your comment !!

Regards..

Link does not seem to work for me - comes up with "Error Occurred While Processing Request" and a message detailing the error.:uhoh:

Doesn't work for me, either.

The site is down at the moment i think. Maybe thay have been sabotaged by irate "others".:eek:

would this the first site ever to be sabotaged?

So any chance of letting those of us that did not see it in on the secret?

It's up now.

I've seen the same Not Invented Here syndrome in Russia, France, Germany and ~er~ Britain where the local heroes are lauded with or without the weasel words like 'solo' 'non-stop' or 'apart from some funny foreigners who don't count' put in or left out.

The two factors making it the same old-same old is that because Britain and the USA both share a sort of similar language, you know what they aren't saying on the other side of the pond. Oh, and your country has to have an imperial sized ego and a few achievements to boost too of course. Working in a different language gives a while different world of aviation achievement.

Australia, Canada and New Zealand have a few notables too, but I guess they are used to being patronised by the fat boys, so it don't notice so much...

To look to the mote in one's own eye, I'd have said Alcock & Brown were first - but they weren't were they? First - NON-STOP... Neither the USN or A&B's achievements were easy or negligible, but a national bias is all too easy to let creep in...

Best version of this was in the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam where all the paintings and models had very short (polite, useable) captions in English, French and German, and a long one in Dutch. It didn't take long to see that the Dutch captions were a lot about tonking the French navy, the British Navy and certainly the Spanish. Guess they were being diplomatic!

The test is can you name ten aviation records set or held by(say) Russia, Italy, France etc. Responses along the lines of "There aren't any..." go in the happy Mr.Xenophobe bin... :hmm:

Everybody knows the home team's stats. How much more do you know?

Just a few thoughts.

So - other nominations?
I would go for:-
George Cayley
Alcock & Brown
Otto Lillienthal
Montgolfier Brothers
If they want to be international, and they have Rickenbacker in they surely must include Richthofen.

Pyotr Nesterov first loop
I.I.Sikorsky first 4 engines aeroplane and first real airliner.

I’d nominate Frenchman Rolland Garros. 1882 – 1918.

First to fly non stop across the Mediterranean in 1913.
First to invent the forward firing machine gun through the propeller of an aircraft in WW 1.

Didn’t do him much good though as he was KIA one month before the end of hostilities in 1918.


C.

I don't think there's anything wrong with any kind of "hall of fame" celebrating the greats of a particular nation's aviation achievements - so long as they admit that's what they are doing.

But, if you start to introduce people from outside your own parish, you really need to be less partisan.

The area this is most obvious I think is actually in Space. Most space related material we read in the English language is US originated, and thus tends to forget that the Russians managed the first man in space, the first two-men in space, the first orbit, first spacewalk, landing on the moon, space shuttle flight, space station... (Basically the Yanks pipped them for a manned moon landing and a more successful shuttle, but that's about it).

G

Genghis,

Agree with your points..but the Russians did have a habit of doing it first for the sake of it..and not being able to mature the result....

A number of those items you mention are applicable.....as is the Tu144...first to fly, first to M1 and M2 but never actually achieved its aim.. so was it really the first commercial airliner to fly? It was never subsequently a commercial airliner...

Pedantic I know but it does have a certain validity...