First Powered Controlled Flight?

[MechAg94]

http://video.foxnews.com/v/2235561700001/
http://www.gustave-whitehead.com/

Saw the first video link on the Fox website which led to the website below that. 
Anyway, it sounds like there is a claim that this guy got his plane to fly in controlled flight using some of the same innovations and was later grounded by the Wright Brother's legal actions.  At least that is what I gathered skimming the website. 

Anyway, I figured someone here probably knows a lot more about this than I do.  Considering the Wrights took so long to prove they could do controlled flights, I am amazed that anyone with a two year lead on them couldn't manage to prove it publicly. 

[birdman]

With that much chord length, and the aeronautical knowledge of the time, its wouldn't be quite a true airfoil, and I would be sustained level flight with no thermals and the power to weight of the motors of the time would be difficult.  A quick glance suggests powered, range extending glider, not airplane.

Hell, it looks to have half the wing area of a powered para glider, with 1/5-1/10 the horsepower, without modern materials...that suggests...difficult.

[vaskidmark]

"86 newspapers reported ...."

Essentially 85 newspapers picked up the same AP story and republished it.  There does not seem to have been an extremely large herd of reporters who all witnessed the event and separately wrote storis for their individual papers.

Interview with the head curator for the Air & Space Museum was on the radio today.  He disclaimed any "contract" with Orville Wright about getting the flyer for $1 back in 1934 based on a contract to never admit anybody but the Wrights were the first to achieve sustained powered flight, and stated that even if it meant giving uo the flyer he would go with documented history every time.

Curioser and curioser.

stay safe.

[coppertales]

You would think that after 110 years, someone would have bought forth the claim before this..................chris3

[Brad Johnson]

The guy has been around for a while.  Lots of rather imaginative photo interpretation and blind reliance on unsubstatiated "eyewitness" reports.  I see this one getting it's own Discover Channel special, airing right after Sasquatch Hunters.

...that is, unless they can prove sasquatch flew first.

Brad

[MechAg94]

With that much chord length, and the aeronautical knowledge of the time, its wouldn't be quite a true airfoil, and I would be sustained level flight with no thermals and the power to weight of the motors of the time would be difficult.  A quick glance suggests powered, range extending glider, not airplane.

Hell, it looks to have half the wing area of a powered para glider, with 1/5-1/10 the horsepower, without modern materials...that suggests...difficult.

I was wondering about that also.  The shape looks like older glider designs and they admit at one point that it was nearly identical to the design of a guy he used to work for.  They also mention he got his plane to fly in a circle, however, they don't know if he could get it to do anything else.

My understanding was that lots of people had gliders and planes that could fly straight or barely turn.  No one had one that could do controlled flight.  When the Wright Brothers took their plane to Paris, people weren't so surprised when it took off, they were floored when it got to the end of the course and smoothly turned around. 

[HankB]

" . . . The original photo of Whitehead’s first motorized flight has since been lost. The newspaper which used it to prepare the lithograph no longer exists. And Whitehead’s own copy was destroyed in a fire when his workshop burnt down . . . "

And the dog ate his homework, the Wright Brothers stole the negatives, and George Bush . . . George Bush . . . well, he must have done something.  

Assertions aren't evidence, the photo interpretation is beyond imaginative, and the "eyewitness" accounts don't strike me as reliable. And newspapers in the early 1900's were every bit as prone to sensationalism as today's. Lots of noise, little substance.

[Gewehr98]

What about the 2 flights by replicas?  That would be proof-of-concept, no?

[MechAg94]

What about the 2 flights by replicas?  That would be proof-of-concept, no?

There was a claim that he was using the same steering method the Wright Bros. developed.  How much "interpretation" was done in building the replicas? 

[RoadKingLarry]

What about the 2 flights by replicas?  That would be proof-of-concept, no?

Except that none of his later craft were able to fly.
Kind of makes you wonder.

[MechAg94]

Except that none of his later craft were able to fly.
Kind of makes you wonder.

It makes you think he had an imperfect understanding of lift and hadn't done wind tunnel tests as others had.

[Hawkmoon]

You would think that after 110 years, someone would have bought forth the claim before this..................chris3

They have.

Back in the late 70s I worked briefly for a guy who was dating a woman named Whitehead. She was the granddaughter or great-granddaughter of the guy in the article, and they showed me a lot of documentation supporting the claim way back then. However, apparently some parties have a lot of "investment" in maintaining the historical line that the Wrights were the first to accomplish powered flight.

Interestingly, it seems there is a lot more/better acceptance of the Whitehead claim in Europe than in the U.S.

[TommyGunn]

It makes you think he had an imperfect understanding of lift and hadn't done wind tunnel tests as others had.

They had wind tunnels before they even had airplanes? 

[birdman]

They had wind tunnels before they even had airplanes? 

Yup.

[TommyGunn]

Yup.

What were they testing?  Chinese kites?

[dm1333]

Discover Channel special, airing right after Sasquatch Hunters.

...that is, unless they can prove sasquatch flew first.

Off course a squatch flew first.  Kill Devils Hill is a squatchy area!

[MechAg94]

What were they testing?  Chinese kites?

I thought that was well known as how the Wrights developed their wing design.  They had a basic wind tunnel.  The documentary I saw a year or two back mentioned that many of the flight attempts at the time had wing designs that weren't quite right to maximize lift. 

[TommyGunn]

I thought that was well known as how the Wrights developed their wing design.  They had a basic wind tunnel.  The documentary I saw a year or two back mentioned that many of the flight attempts at the time had wing designs that weren't quite right to maximize lift. 

Well, I was never really into the history of flight, beyond that old great movie, "Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines."

[Tallpine]

The truth is that the First Powered Controlled Flight was accomplished by the Wong sisters in China in 1899.

But then they got married and had kids, and abandoned their invention.

[MillCreek]

So you are saying that the sisters went the Wong way?

[Hawkmoon]

No, he's saying some people don't know a Wright from a Wong.

[Tallpine]

So you are saying that the sisters went the Wong way?

They had the Wong stuff 

[vaskidmark]

They had wind tunnels before they even had airplanes? 

Those glider enthusiasts were to blame.  Always trying to find a better way to get it up and keep it up.

Which also answers the question of what the Wong sisters used as their propulsion force.

stay safe.

[TommyGunn]

Those glider enthusiasts were to blame.  Always trying to find a better way to get it up and keep it up.

Which also answers the question of what the Wong sisters used as their propulsion force.

stay safe.

  I see what you did there!

[birdman]

What were they testing?  Chinese kites?

Gliders.  Etc.