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Orville and Wilbur Wright are generally credited with being the first in flight. Whether that’s true depends on your definition of “flight”. If you mean controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, then that’s what they are known for, but even that may not be quite true, since controlled and sustained are not black-or-white terms. There were plenty of aviation pioneers working on flying in the nineteenth century; after all, we had automobiles and balloons and gliders already, many figured it shouldn’t be too difficult to combine them. And there were some substantial cash rewards up for grabs around the turn of the century.
Félix du Temple de la Croix was a French Naval officer who recieved a patent for a flying machine in 1857. This version never flew, but the steam engine design was successfully used to power boats in later years. By 1874, he had developed a lightweight steam-powered monoplane which flew short distances under its own power after takeoff from a ski-jump.
Alexander Fyodorovich Mozhayskiy was a Russian Naval officer who tackled the problem of heavier-than-air flight twenty years before the Wright Brothers. His 60-100 foot hop of 1884 is now considered a power-assisted takeoff, utilizing a ramp for lift. Since his flatwing monoplane was 75 feet long itself, the event must’ve been underwhelming. Although not considered a real powered flight, Mozhayskiy made some significant breakthroughs in propulsion and steering. The details of Mozhayskiy’s research have been somewhat obscured due to the Soviet’s use of his story for propaganda purposes.
French inventor Clément Ader distinguished himself as the first to develop stereo sound, among his many engineering innovations. He was the first to achieve self-propelled flight, with a batwing aircraft powered by a steam engine. His first flight was around 50 meters, on October 9, 1890, a full 13 years before the Wright Brothers! He then designed a better flying machine that reportedly flew 200 yards in 1892. A public demonstration in 1897 apparently ended badly, and Ader lost his Department of War funding. More pictures here.
More early fliers, after the jump.
American-turned-English citizen Sir Hiram Maxim invented the automatic machine gun and the mousetrap. He also fought Thomas Edison over the patent for the light bulb. His airplane, the Maxim Flyer, was enormous. It had a 104-foot wingspan, including a 40-foot center “kite” section. A steam engine powered two 18-foot propellers. The plane was tethered to a railroad track, so the altitude of flight would not exceed nine inches during tests. However, on July 31st, 1894, the plane broke free of the restraint and achieved an altitude of almost five feet!
American Augustus Moore Herring applied for a patent for a man-supporting, heavier-than-air, motorized, controllable flying machine in 1896. On October 11, 1899, he flew 50 feet in a glider with a compressed air engine in St. Joseph, Michigan, and flew 73 feet on October 22nd, a flight that was witnessed and reported in the local newspaper. Modern aviation engineers consider Herring’s flights as glider flights (resembling a hang glider), and not a significant advance in aviation.
Gustave Whitehead, a German immigrant to the United States, built several airplanes before the Wrights took their first flight. A 1935 account in Popular Avation magazine said Whitehead had flown a steam-powered plane as early as 1899! He was also reported to have flown a gasoline-powered plane on August 14, 1901 in Fairfield, Connecticut. A 1901 newspaper account told the story, but it is the only source from that time period. A reproduction of the airplane Whitehead used in the 1901 flight (known as Number 21) was built and successfully flight tested in 1997, pointing to the possibility that he could have flown earlier than the Wright Brothers.
Karl Jatho of Hanover, Germany tested his flat-winged airplane several times between August and November 1903. His longest flight was less than 200 feet at an altitude of about 10 feet, but it was still motorized flight, months before the Wright Brothers. He later improved the plane design and successfully flew longer and higher in 1909.
The Rev. Burrell Cannon was inspired by the book of Ezekiel when he built the Ezekiel Airship around 1900, with $20,000 from investors. The first model was destroyed during shipping. There is no concrete evidence that the second model ever flew, but four witnesses said they saw it fly at an altitude of about 12 feet in 1902. The Rev. Cannon was not one of the witnesses, as he was preaching that day when his employee, Gus Stamps, reportedly decided to take a spin in the airship. There were no photographs, and no repeat performances. A replica of the Ezekiel Airship is on display at the Depot Museum in Pittsburg. Texas.
Possibly the best claim to successful powered and controlled flight before the Wright Brothers comes from New Zealand. Richard Pearse of Waitohi worked on the problem of powered flight beginning in 1899, and developed an aircraft that quite resembled a modern ultralight. Pearse would have beaten the Wrights by eight months if he hadn’t crashed at the end of his 140 meter flight on March 31st, 1903. Or maybe it was the lack of photographs, logs, or written records of the flight. The few eyewitnesses couldn’t agree on the length of the flight, or even the exact date. Some accounts place the flight as early as 1902; some as late as 1904. Since the landing wasn’t really any rougher than the Wright’s landing during that first flight at Kill Devil Hills, the lack of documentation probably kept Pearse out of most history books.
Orville and Wilbur Wright will always be known as the first fliers for several reasons. The design of their successful plane was a breakthrough for the curvature of the wings, which provided lift. They had carefully documented records, photographs, and credible witnesses. They were masters of publicity and promotion; for example, taking President Theodore Roosevelt for an airplane ride (on film) didn’t hurt their reputation a bit. And there was that feud with the Smithsonian Institution. The Wright Brothers plane was finally consigned to the Institution in 1948 when the conservators agreed to this stipulation from Orville’s estate:
Neither the Smithsonian Institution or its successors, nor any museum or other agency, bureau or facilities administered for the United States of America by the Smithsonian Institution or its successors shall publish or permit to be displayed a statement or label in connection with or in respect of any aircraft model or design of earlier date than the Wright Aeroplane of 1903, claiming in effect that such aircraft was capable of carrying a man under its own power in controlled flight.
See part two of this documentary here.
The science of aviation also owes a lot to the research of those who built planes but never successfully flew. The history of aviation is full of colorful characters, many of whom developed pieces of what eventually became our modern airplanes. Such breakthroughs, of course, continued after the Wright Brother’s flight of 1903 and still continue today, but those earliest flights were the most exciting.
Special thanks to Bill for research on this article!
Comments (22)
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Great article! This is just another example of American misnomers about being the first at everything. Don’t get me started on Henry Ford and the automobile. The first car came into existence (though heavily disputed) nearly 100 years before the Model T!
I am ashamed to admit it, but I once sat through a “cultural awareness” class in which the instructor explained that there is so much aggression against the US because we are so good at everything. He went on to cite first in flight, first automobile and many other erroneous “firsts.”
posted by Julia on 8-14-2007 at 6:48 am
wikipedia says: Alberto Santos-Dumont
Born 20 July 1873
Palmira, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Died 23 July 1932 São Paulo
Occupation Aviator
Alberto Santos-Dumont (20 July 1873 – 23 July 1932) was an early pioneer of aviation. He was born, and died in Brazil. He spent most of his adult life living in France. His contributions to aviation took place while he was living in Paris, France.
Santos-Dumont designed, built, and flew the first practical dirigible balloons. In doing so he became the first person to demonstrate that routine, controlled flight was possible. This “conquest of the air”, in particular winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize on 19 October 1901 on a flight that rounded the Eiffel Tower, made him one of the most famous people in the world during the early 20th century.
In addition to his pioneering work in airships, Santos-Dumont made the first public European flight of an airplane in Paris in October 1906. That aircraft, designated 14-bis or Oiseau de proie (French for “bird of prey”), is considered to be the first to take off, fly, and land without the use of catapults, high winds, launch rails, or other external assistance. In Brazil he is honored as the “Father of Aviation”,[1]ignoring that three years previously, the Wright brothers had already successfully achieved flight in 1903.
posted by Nagia Ortiz on 8-14-2007 at 7:36 am
Excellent article. I had no idea there were so many “flights” predating the Wrights. It would be interesting to here more about the early balloons and airships.
posted by Ron on 8-14-2007 at 8:30 am
Who claims that Ford invented the automobile? That’s ridiculous, and even Ford doesn’t make that assertion! Even in the US, there were dozens of automotive pioneers before Ford. What Ford did was to pioneer the cheap car through the adaption of mass production techniques. It came decades after the “first cars” (who was first is a bit arguable, but probably European, not American).
The Wrights have a fair claim to being first in (heavier than air) flight. Yes, the definition of “flight” is a bit nebulous, but their claim is better documented that the others. Please note, the Wrights claim revolves around heavier than air powered flight! Throwing stuff in about Santos-Dumont and dirigible is irrelevent. Why not include the 18th century Montgolfier brothers and their ballons? Lighter than air flight is a WHOLE DIFFERENT topic.
Finally, the stuff about the German flying at 10′ altitude … even if that is true, 10′ in altitude is within the range of ground effect and is not typically counted as an acheievement of useful flight (it’s only useful if you can travel somewhere perfectly flat — the Russians have built “ships” (sorta) that use this principle. Read more about it here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_in_aircraft
posted by Sid Morrison on 8-14-2007 at 8:45 am
What, no mention of my man Lyman Gilmore?
From Wikipedia:
Lyman Wiswell Gilmore, Jr. (June 11, 1874 – February 18, 1951) was an aviation pioneer. In Grass Valley, California, USA, he built a steam-powered airplane and claimed that he flew it on May 15, 1902. Due to the requirement of a heavy boiler and the dependency on coal as a power source, the flights would have only been short. Potential proofs of his claim were lost in a 1935 hangar fire.
posted by Griner on 8-14-2007 at 10:39 am
I’m tired of this magazine. In the guise of intellectual rigor this magazine is willing to print any and all “facts” that they happen upon. It is obvious to me that those who contribute to this blog and magazine are clowns who are simply interested in trivia tidbits. Downplaying the true engineering that went into the wright brothers plane is to showcase the ignorance of the author. The wrights are the first because they influenced the rest. Many of these other “designs” look ridiculous because they were built on specious reasoning, vis a vis mental_floss. I know you won’t miss my 20 bucks a year.
posted by Jeremy on 8-14-2007 at 2:08 pm
Especially contributors named Jeremy…
posted by actor212 on 8-14-2007 at 5:28 pm
Wow Jeremy, did you even read the article, or just the headline?
The Wrights are credited with the first truly successful flight, but these other people, who most people have never heard of, are very interesting. It should be noted that the Wrights greatest achievement was development of wing warping to control the roll axis. Other pioneers could not get their minds beyond the concept of ground steering.
posted by Jenson on 8-14-2007 at 8:09 pm
One more comment… the main posting sort of implies that the Wrights (well, by that time Orville, as WIlbur had died in 1912) was being petty with the Smithsonian Institution regarding the donation of their Flyer and the legal agreement that was required.
Their reasons were quite justified — The Smithsonian had for decades touted Samuel Langley (very oddly missing from this posting… weird) as first to fly. Langley was no crackpot, serious competition to the Wrights, and (most important!) Director of the Smithsonian! The Smithsonian gave Langly cash to finance his flight research and for many years after Kitty Hawk, displayed Langley’s plane as the “first aircraft capable of flight”. In the Teens, they even got together with Wright-rival Glenn Curtis, loaning him the Langley plane (which he very heavily improved before finally flying) to aid his patent fight against the Wrights while simultaneously proving their former director Langley was first. Needless to say, the Smithsonian exhibited a LOT of favoritism towards Langley, and this rightly (wrightly?) pissed the Wrights off. Orville kept them from getting the Wright Flyer for decades until they were willing to agree to the legalese to stop promoting Langley precedence at their expense. He was quite justified.
posted by Sid Morrison on 8-15-2007 at 7:24 am
Langley was almost the first, but his attempts failed, so he never claimed to have flown. The subjects of this post seem to have claimed success to a degree.
The Smithsonian were real dicks about the Wrights accomplishments for a long time.
posted by William on 8-15-2007 at 7:37 am
Thanks, Sid and William. The Smithsonian story is long and complicated, so I linked to the Wikipedia entry.
posted by Miss Cellania on 8-15-2007 at 8:00 am
biased article. ever heard of traian vuia? he’s romanian. check it out on wikipedia
posted by had3z_ro on 8-15-2007 at 12:32 pm
One more thing to note is that in 1896-97
there were sightings of flying machines in American skies. This series of sightings is known as “The Great Airship Mystery”. The possibility exists that these were experimental dirigibles being test flown either by private inventors or the US military. If these reports are true then it proves that are more people who can claim the title of being the first to fly.
posted by Avinash Machado on 8-16-2007 at 5:18 am
Just want to add, that first ever attempt to flight experiment was done by an Andalusian polymath, Ibn Farnas, in 875 AD.
posted by iblees on 9-14-2007 at 6:41 am
This just goes to show that Most of what we have learned in American History is a crock. I myself had to explain to the Smithsonian just after the movie “TOP GUN” came out that the planes they had displayed in the TOP GUN display, F-15, F-16 Etc, were Air Force Jets not Navy Jets and that TOP GUN was a Navy School. within 15 minutes they were changing their display
posted by Barry on 10-1-2007 at 12:27 pm
From your article, “A reproduction of the airplane Whitehead used in the 1901 flight (known as Number 21) was built and successfully flight tested in 1997, pointing to the possibility that he could have flown earlier than the Wright Brothers.”
Did you mean 1897?
posted by Maureen on 10-1-2007 at 1:10 pm
The problem with the argument is that the definition of “flight” is a broad topic so there’s a lot of different ways we can interpret it.
I think Sid Morrison and Jenson both have good points though, the Wright brothers did research and come up with a wing design that’s still used today AND the bothers did keep very good documentation of their achievements.
posted by Moroni on 10-1-2007 at 1:21 pm
Maureen, no, this was an investigation in 1997 as to whether the plane Whitehead designed 100 years earlier could have been flightworthy. But I AM prone to such typos occasionally!
posted by Miss Cellania on 10-1-2007 at 1:22 pm
Does it really matter who was the first? American obsession with getting over mountains the easy way would have brought us to exactly the same spot we are today. I am just happy to know that aircraft were first used as mail carriers instead of bomb carriers.
posted by Walt Landmesser on 11-5-2007 at 10:42 am
yeah i think you should add a section for Traian Vuia..
posted by a fan of traian vuia on 11-26-2007 at 9:46 pm
maureen, no the arcticle is correct they rebuilt the aircraft and tested the design to test possibilities….
this arcticle is garbage.. USA is best
posted by Vince Rollen on 1-4-2008 at 11:41 am
It really doesn’t matter who was the first, the fact is that in Brazil we still think that Santos-Dumont is the father of Aviation… and I would like another people to know that.
Actually in 2005 I had the great opportunity to visit the Ford Museum and I think it is a great place to go… many old cars, planes and electronics… just great!!!
I wish American people would/should explore more of what they DO have.
posted by Nagia Ortiz on 5-7-2008 at 1:54 pm