Gustave Whitehead?
Posted:
Sun Jun 09, 2013 2:29 amby Tone
Gustave Whitehead? I heard about him on the national news this evening, but I had never heard of him before. Some claim he flew a monoplane in Connecticut in 1901, two years before the Wright brothers. I checked my few books and found nothing. Clement Ader, Hiram Maxim, Aleksandr Mozhaisky and Samuel P Langley "before the Wrights" yes, but no Gustave Whitehead.
Re: Gustave Whitehead?
Posted:
Sun Jun 09, 2013 2:20 pmby ramseyd
Saw the same report. Looked up Gustave Whitehead on Wikipedia. Looks like he flew prior to Wright Bros and had some control, by shifting his weight. Many other flew prior to the Wright Bros. flight but theirs was the first powered controlled sustained flight.
From Wikipedia Wright Bros.:
The Wright "brothers developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft. Although not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, the Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible."