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Wright Brothers Not First to Fly

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Centrix Vigilis View Drop Down
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  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Wright Brothers Not First to Fly
    Posted: 18-Mar-2013 at 10:56
Well sheeeeeeeeeeeet.
 
There goes that one eh. Nothing left to do... but get out the jug.WinkLOLLOL
It's a great story ntl. A tremendous oversight by historians and here's a case of verifiable revisionism.
 
 
 


Edited by Centrix Vigilis - 18-Mar-2013 at 10:58
"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"

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Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true'

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  Quote Mountain Man Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18-Mar-2013 at 13:53
So what happened?  The Wright Brothers' basic design was eventually fielded, but why didn't the Condor, if it was, in fact, superior to the design of the Wright Brothers, go on to further use and development?
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  Quote red clay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18-Mar-2013 at 16:36
Possibly for the same reasons that a late resident of Rancocas was never acknowledged for his early flights.
Watson Buck had an operational model at about the same time as the Wrights.  Funding was his major problem.  He'd done everything he could to raise the money for a more powerful engine, only to have his partner abscond with the engine. Or so the story goes.Wink
 
When I was a kid Wat still had the thing hanging in the rafters of his barn.  Unfortunately, the barn burned about 1970, and the "flyer" was lost.
 
 


Edited by red clay - 18-Mar-2013 at 16:43
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  Quote lirelou Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18-Mar-2013 at 21:57
As I read the article, Whitehead's design was used later, by Glenn Curtis. In any event, the Wright Brothers had the superior public relations campaign, and obviously found people to fund their travels. The six jumps I made at the French Army Parachute School in Pau were all made on "Wright DZ", named because the brothers flew into and out of it. A WWI flight school was based there. They certainly didn't let any grass grow under their feet after Kittyhawk.
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21-Mar-2013 at 20:43
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Samuel_Pierpont_Langley_-_Potomac_experiment_1903.jpeg
Langley's Aerodrome could have beaten the Wright Brothers had it been made of stronger material
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-Mar-2013 at 20:31
Percy Pilcher apparently designed a viable heavier-than-air aircraft in 1899, but died in a glider accident before it could be built
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28-Mar-2013 at 20:23
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  Quote medenaywe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Mar-2013 at 00:12
Icarus&Pegasus&Lot of Gods and ancient heroes were before Wright brothers also...Smile
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  Quote TITAN_ Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29-Mar-2013 at 03:30
Originally posted by medenaywe

Icarus&Pegasus&Lot of Gods and ancient heroes were before Wright brothers also...Smile


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  Quote Mountain Man Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01-Apr-2013 at 18:31
This may shed some light on the situation:

[QUOTE]Were the Wright brothers first in flight? Read the fine print. 

A little-known 1948 contract between the estate of Orville Wright and the Smithsonian has the museum legally bound to call the Wright brothers first in flight: "The Smithsonian shall [not state] any aircraft ... earlier than the Wright aeroplane of 1903 ... was capable of carrying a man under its own power in controlled flight," it states.

One aviation historian claims that contract is wrong, however, forcing the museum to ignore the truth. And for the first time, the museum has released the contract publicly to FoxNews.com, to let the world make its own decisions.

According to most anyone you ask, Orville and Wilbur sailed into history books on Dec. 17, 1903, following their historic flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The Smithsonian features the Wright Flyer prominently today.[QUOTE]http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/04/01/contract-forcing-smithsonian-to-call-wright-bros-first-in-flight/?intcmp=HPBucket


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  Quote Sixteen String Jack Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15-Apr-2013 at 14:33
Forget the Wright Brothers (1903), Condor (1901) and even Pilcher (1899).
 
The first powered flight in history took place way back in 1848 in England.
 
British inventors John Stringfellow and William Samuel Henderson took out a patent in 1842 for their Aeriel Steam Carriage, also known as Ariel, that was supposed to carry passengers in the air.
 
The Aeriel Steam Carriage
 
Stringfellow and Henderson had ambitions of creating an international company, the Aerial Transit Company, with designs showing aeroplane travel in exotic locations like Egypt and China. Despite their efforts, the designs were flawed with Stringfellow's ideas centred on monoplane and triplane models and Henson's ideas centred on an underpowered steam-powered vehicle.
 
In June 1848, just months after Henson had emigrated, Stringfellow successfully flew his model inside a long room in a disused lace mill in Chard, Somerset.  It was the first powered flight in history.

The Ariel was launched from a supporting inclined wire several yards long which ensured the machine started flying at a reasonable speed and in the right direction.

Stringfellow's son wrote the following:

My father had constructed another small model which was finished early in 1848, and having the loan of a long room in a disused lace factory, early in June the small model was moved there for experiments. The room was about 22 yards long and from 10 to 12 feet high. The inclined wire for starting the machine occupied less than half the length of the room and left space at the end for the machine to clear the floor. In the first experiment the tail was set at too high an angle, and the machine rose too rapidly on leaving the wire. After going a few yards it slid back as if coming down an inclined plane, at such an angle that the point of the tail struck the ground and was broken. The tail was repaired and set at a smaller angle. The steam was again got up, and the machine started down the wire, and, upon reaching the point of self-detachment, it gradually rose until it reached the farther end of the room, striking a hole in the canvas placed to stop it. In experiments the machine flew well, when rising as much as one in seven. The late Reverend J. Riste, Esquire, lace manufacturer, Northcote Spicer, Esquire, J. Toms, Esquire, and others witnessed experiments. Mister Marriatt, late of the San Francisco News Letter brought down from London Mister Ellis, the then leasee of Cremorne Gardens, Mister Partridge, and Lieutenant Gale, the aeronaut, to witness experiments. Mister Ellis offered to construct a covered way at Cremorne for experiments. Mr Stringfellow repaired to Cremorne, but not much better accommodations than he had at home were provided, owing to unfulfilled engagement as to room. Mister Stringfellow was preparing for departure when a party of gentlemen unconnected with the Gardens begged to see an experiment, and finding them able to appreciate his endeavours, he got up steam and started the model down the wire. When it arrived at the spot where it should leave the wire it appeared to meet with some obstruction, and threatened to come to the ground, but it soon recovered itself and darted off in as fair a flight as it was possible to make at a distance of about 40 yards, where it was stopped by the canvas. Having now demonstrated the practicability of making a steam-engine fly, and finding nothing but a pecuniary loss and little honour, this experimenter rested for a long time, satisfied with what he had effected. The subject, however, had to him special charms, and he still contemplated the renewal of his experiments.

John Stringfellow's flying machine in the Science Museum, London.
 
John Stringfellow


Edited by Sixteen String Jack - 15-Apr-2013 at 14:44
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  Quote Centrix Vigilis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15-Apr-2013 at 19:09
Great stuff.
"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"

S. T. Friedman


Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true'

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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15-Apr-2013 at 19:22
Originally posted by medenaywe

Icarus&Pegasus&Lot of Gods and ancient heroes were before Wright brothers also...Smile

That doesn't really count. Icarus' flying machine was a lighter-than-air glider, not a heavier-than-air powered aircraft
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