Claims to the first powered flight facts for kids
Several people have claimed to be the first to fly a powered airplane. There's been a lot of discussion about these claims. Today, most people agree that the Wright brothers were the first to make a controlled, sustained flight in a powered airplane in 1903. However, in Brazil, many believe that their countryman Alberto Santos-Dumont was the first successful aviator. They often don't count the Wright brothers' claim because their Flyer took off from a rail and sometimes used a catapult for later flights. Other pioneers like Gustave Whitehead and Clément Ader also have supporters who claim they flew first.
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Who Flew First?
Many people and their supporters have claimed to be the first to fly a powered airplane with a person inside. The most well-known claims include:
- Clément Ader with his Avion III in 1897.
- Gustave Whitehead with his No. 21 and 22 airplanes between 1901 and 1903.
- Samuel Pierpont Langley's Aerodrome A in 1903.
- The Wright brothers with the Wright Flyer in 1903.
- Alberto Santos-Dumont with his 14-bis in 1906.
To decide who flew first, people generally look for a flight that was:
- Sustained: It lasted for a good amount of time.
- Powered: It used an engine to stay in the air.
- Controlled: The pilot could steer and guide the aircraft.
For example, in 1890, Ader made a short, uncontrolled "hop" in his Éole. But a hop like that isn't usually considered a true flight. Some also think the aircraft should be able to take off on its own, without help. How far a plane needed to fly to count has also been debated.
Early Attempts at Flight
Before the problem of powered flight was solved, some notable "hops" were made.
In 1874, Félix du Temple built a steam-powered airplane. It took off from a ramp with a sailor on board and flew a short distance. Some say this was the first powered flight, but most disagree because it used a ramp (gravity-assisted) and didn't fly for long. However, it is seen as the first powered takeoff in history.
Ten years later, in 1884, Alexander Mozhaysky in Russia had similar success. His craft launched from a ramp and flew about 30 meters (98 feet). But few outside Russia believe this was a sustained flight.
Clément Ader's Éole in 1890 was a bat-winged plane. It made a brief, uncontrolled hop. This was the first time a machine heavier than air took off from flat ground using its own power. But it wasn't a true flight because it wasn't sustained or controlled. Ader later made a disputed claim about a longer flight.
In 1901, Wilhelm Kress built the Drachenflieger, a triple-winged floatplane. It had an internal combustion engine. It could move well on the water, but it wasn't powerful enough to take off.
The Time of Claimed Flights
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Few claims of powered flight were widely accepted when they happened. The Wright brothers and Whitehead didn't get much attention at first. Ader and Langley didn't even make claims right after their work. Langley died in 1906 without ever saying he was successful.
Aviation pioneer Octave Chanute helped promote the Wrights' work in the U.S. and Europe. The brothers started to get noticed in Britain. In 1904, Colonel John Edward Capper met the Wrights and helped them gain early recognition.
In 1906, the U.S. Army turned down a proposal from the Wrights. They said the machine's ability to fly hadn't been proven. So, when Alberto Santos-Dumont made a short flight that year in his 14-bis airplane, he was celebrated in France as the first to fly. Ader then claimed he had flown his Avion III back in 1897.
Claims and Recognition
Santos-Dumont's 1906 flight claim has never been seriously doubted. However, few experts consider it the very first flight. Some have questioned how well his controls worked.
In 1908, the Wrights showed off their much-improved Flyers. Orville flew in America, and Wilbur in Europe. Their flights amazed the world.
Ader's claim was disproven in 1910 when the official report on his work was finally released.
In the United States, the Smithsonian Institution didn't want to give credit to the Wright Brothers. Instead, they honored Samuel Pierpont Langley. His 1903 tests of his Aerodrome on the Potomac River had failed. In 1914, Glenn Curtiss was in a legal fight with the Wrights over patents. Curtiss tried to prove Langley's machine could fly. He hoped this would make the Wrights' patents invalid.
The Aerodrome was taken from the Smithsonian and prepared for flight. Curtiss called this "restoration," saying he only added floats for testing on a lake. But critics said he changed the original design. Curtiss flew the changed Aerodrome, hopping a few feet off the lake for 5 seconds at a time.
They used this to claim the Aerodrome was the first airplane "capable of flight." Orville Wright, the surviving brother, fought a long battle to make the Smithsonian recognize their claim. He was so upset that in 1928, he sent the historic Flyer to the British Science Museum in London. He finally won in 1942. The Smithsonian, under a new leader, admitted Curtiss's changes and took back its claim.
Meanwhile, Gustave Whitehead also gained supporters after a book and article were published. In 1945, Orville Wright wrote a critique of the evidence for Whitehead.
Orville died in 1948. As part of a deal with his family, the Flyer was returned to the U.S. and put on display. The contract said the Smithsonian had to claim the Wrights flew first, or they would lose the plane.
Whitehead's supporters have also fought for recognition. They criticize the Smithsonian's contract with the Wright family. While Whitehead's supporters have grown, they are still a small group.
Today, most people agree that the Wright brothers were the first to make sustained and controlled powered flights. Many in Brazil believe Santos-Dumont was the first successful aviator because his plane didn't use an outside launch system like a rail or catapult.
Clément Ader's Claims
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After his hop in the Éole, Clément Ader received money from the French military. He built two more machines: the Avion II and, in 1897, the larger Avion III. Neither of these planes could get off the ground at all.
Years later, in 1906, Ader publicly claimed that his Éole had flown for 330 feet (100 meters) in 1891. He also claimed that the Avion III had flown for 1,000 feet (300 meters) during its trials.
Ader's claim for the Avion III was proven false in 1910. That's when the French military finally published its report on his work. His claim for the Éole also failed because there was no proof.
Gustave Whitehead's Claims
When Gustav Weisskopf moved to the United States, he changed his name to Gustave Whitehead. There, he started many experiments with gliders, airplane engines, and motorized flying machines. Whitehead and others have claimed he made successful powered airplane flights.
- Louis Darvarich, a friend of Whitehead, said they flew together in a steam-powered machine in 1899. He claimed they crashed into a building.
- The Bridgeport Herald newspaper reported that on August 14, 1901, Whitehead flew his No. 21 monoplane. It reportedly reached a height of 50 feet (15 meters) and could be steered a little by shifting his weight.
- Whitehead wrote letters to a magazine, saying that in 1902 he made two flights in his No. 22 machine. He claimed one flight was a circle, steered by a rudder and changing the speed of his two propellers.
The Smithsonian Controversy
In 1963, a U.S. Air Force major named William O'Dwyer was asked to look into Whitehead's claims. He became convinced that Whitehead did fly. He helped Stella Randolph write a book called The Story of Gustave Whitehead, Before the Wrights Flew, published in 1966.
O'Dwyer and Randolph later wrote another book, History by Contract, in 1978. This book criticized the Smithsonian Institution. It said the Smithsonian had a secret contract to only credit the 1903 Wright Flyer for the first powered, controlled flight. This, they argued, created a conflict of interest. The Smithsonian strongly defended itself.
Samuel Pierpont Langley's Attempts
Samuel Pierpont Langley was the head of the Smithsonian Institution from 1887 until his death in 1906. During this time, he conducted experiments with aircraft, supported by the U.S. War Department. His main project was his manned Aerodrome A. In 1903, under Langley's direction, Charles M. Manly tried to fly the craft from a catapult on a houseboat. Both attempts, on October 7 and December 8, failed. Manly ended up in the water each time.
Glenn Curtiss and the Smithsonian
About ten years later, in 1914, Glenn Curtiss changed the Aerodrome. He flew it a few hundred feet. He did this to fight a patent owned by the Wright brothers. It was also an effort by the Smithsonian to save Langley's reputation in aviation. Curtiss's flights made the Smithsonian display the Aerodrome in its museum as "the first man-carrying aeroplane in the history of the world capable of sustained free flight." Many historians called this a lie, but it was printed in magazines and books.
The Smithsonian's action started a long, bitter argument with Orville Wright. It wasn't until 1942 that the Smithsonian finally gave in. They published the changes Curtiss made to the Aerodrome and took back their misleading statements about the 1914 tests.
The Wright Brothers' Flight
On December 17, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright brothers launched their airplane. It ran on a dolly along a short rail on flat ground. Orville and Wilbur took turns, making four short flights. Each flight was about ten feet high. They flew mostly straight and didn't try to turn. Each flight ended with a bumpy landing on the plane's skids, as it didn't have wheels. The last flight, by Wilbur, lasted 59 seconds and covered 852 feet (260 meters). This was much longer than the first three flights. The Flyer moved forward using its own engine power. It was not helped by a catapult, though the brothers did use catapults for tests in later years. A strong headwind helped the machine get enough speed to fly. Photos were taken of the plane in flight.
The Wrights kept detailed records of their work. Their letters with Octave Chanute show how they worked to invent a flying machine. They also took photos, but they didn't share any photos of their powered flights until 1908. Their written records were also not public at the time. They were published in 1953 after their family gave them to the U.S. Library of Congress.
U.S. newspapers mostly accepted the Wrights' claim to the first historic flight, though they reported it incorrectly at first. In January 1904, the Wrights gave a statement to newspapers accurately describing the flights. After a public demonstration in May 1904, the Wrights stopped trying to publicize their work. Their patent lawyer advised them to keep details of their machine secret. In 1905, a few dozen people saw flights by the Wright Flyer III. Pioneers like Octave Chanute and British Army officer Lt. Col. John Capper believed the Wrights' statements about their flights.
In 1906, almost three years after the first flights, the U.S. Army rejected an offer from the Wrights. They said the machine's ability to fly had not been proven.
By 1907, the Wrights' claims were widely accepted enough that they were talking with Britain, France, and Germany, as well as their own government. In early 1908, they signed contracts with the U.S. War Department and a French group. In May, Wilbur sailed to Europe for flight tests. On July 4, 1908, Glenn Curtiss gave the first widely publicized public flight demonstration in the USA. This caused the Wright brothers' reputation to drop. But later flights by both brothers that year amazed the world. Their early claims then gained almost universal public recognition.
Some later criticisms of the Wrights include that they were secretive before 1908. Also, they used a catapult-assisted launch sometimes. Some also said their machine was hard to fly because it wasn't stable enough.
Alberto Santos-Dumont's Flight
Alberto Santos-Dumont was a Brazilian aviation pioneer with French family. He moved to France to study. He became famous there for his airships before he started working on heavier-than-air flight. On October 23, 1906, he flew his 14-bis biplane for 60 meters (200 feet) at a height of about five meters (15 feet) or less. The flight was officially watched and confirmed by the Aéro-Club (later called the Aéro-Club de France). This won Santos-Dumont the Deutsch-Archdeacon Prize for the first officially observed flight of more than 25 meters. Aviation historians generally see this as the first powered flight in Europe. Then, on November 12, a flight of 22.2 seconds carried the 14-bis about 220 meters (720 feet). This earned him another prize for the first flight over 100 meters. This flight was also watched by the new Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) and became the first record in their log book.
The plane's side control system used ailerons between the wings. These were connected to a harness worn by the pilot. The pilot was supposed to correct any rolling by leaning the other way. Both flights ended when the plane started to roll, and Santos-Dumont landed because he couldn't correct it. This has made some critics question how well the 14-bis could be controlled sideways. However, it hasn't stopped the flight from being recognized. At that time, the Wrights' claim hadn't been accepted in Europe and was questioned in America. So, many people credited Santos-Dumont with the first powered flight.
Other Early Attempts
In 1894, Hiram Maxim tested a flying machine on a track. It was held down by safety rails because it couldn't be controlled well. The machine lifted off the track and hit the safety rails. Some people claim this was a flight, but Maxim himself never did.
Richard Pearse of New Zealand is credited by some in his country with making the first powered airplane flight on March 31, 1903. He didn't claim it himself and gave unclear information about when he did his work. A writer named Geoffrey Rodliffe said, "no responsible researcher has ever claimed that he achieved fully controlled flight before the Wright brothers, or indeed at any time."
Karl Jatho of Germany is generally credited with making powered hops in Hanover between August and November 1903. He claimed a hop of 18 meters (59 feet) about 1 meter (3 feet) high on August 18, 1903. He claimed several more hops or short flights by November 1903, up to 60 meters (200 feet) at 3 meters (10 feet) high. His aircraft took off from flat ground. Some people in Germany believe he made the first airplane flight. Sources disagree on whether his aircraft was controlled.
Traian Vuia is credited with a powered hop of 11 meters (36 feet) on March 18, 1906. He claimed more powered takeoffs in August. His design was a monoplane with a propeller at the front. It is known as the first to show that a heavier-than-air machine could take off on wheels. Romanian sources credit him as the first to take off and fly using his machine's "own self provided energy" and no "external support." This means he didn't use a rail or catapult, like the Wright brothers did. Santos-Dumont was in the audience at the March 1906 event.
Jacob Ellehammer made a tethered (tied down) powered hop of about 138 feet (42 meters) on September 12, 1906. This has been claimed as a flight. Ellehammer's attempt was not officially watched. Santos-Dumont's flight, only a few weeks later, was watched and is given more importance.
See also
- Early flying machines
