Who flew first?

[olyinaz]

Despite early Smithsonian support, it's pretty well accepted that Langly did not fly before the Wright brothers. However...

http://www.aopa.org/aircraft/articles/2 ... c_sect=gan

The whole story is news to me, but obviously Otto Lilienthal's gliders flew just fine so a powered version easily could have flown. Hmmm....

[Pisgah]

It is ceratainly arguable that the Wrights were not the first to achieve powered flight; it is harder to dispute they were the first to achieve controlled flight with a return to the starting point. Control and propeller design were their main advances -- and ironically, the control system in use today owes more to Langley's design than the Wrights'.

[rbertalotto]

If you go to the Glenn Curtis museum in NY, they sell T-Shirts that saw "The Wright Bros Did What First?"

The museum claims that Glenn Curtis flew nearly two years before the Wright Bros.

BTW, amazing museum. Fantastic brilliant guy! Mind boggling how many thing this guy designed and built in such a short life.

[1894c]

I definitely know one thing in all of this controversy...it wasn't me...didn't set foot on a plane until 1973... :)

[olyinaz]

If you go to the Glenn Curtis museum in NY, they sell T-Shirts that saw "The Wright Bros Did What First?"

The museum claims that Glenn Curtis flew nearly two years before the Wright Bros.

BTW, amazing museum. Fantastic brilliant guy! Mind boggling how many thing this guy designed and built in such a short life.

Yep! Glenn Curtiss was an amazing fellow.

[AJMD429]

From Wikipedia "On July 4, 1908, he flew 5,080 feet, to win the Scientific American Trophy and its $2,500 purse.[12] This was considered to be the first pre-announced public flight of a heavier-than-air flying machine in America."

Given that my parents and aunts and uncles were born around those years, that reminds me just how MUCH our society and technology have changed in just a couple generations. I think younger people, or those whose families have 'generations' every 20 years instead of every 40, sometimes forget how relatively new and perhaps transient some of the things are they take for granted technologically and socially.

[Mescalero]

Those of us that hold a license from FAA, can not escape Orville & Wilbur emblazed on it.
There was much debate about that, because we are " turbine " guys.
When I was asked how I felt about that, my reply was; without them, none of us would be here.

[Blaine]

Icarus...

[Mescalero]

Leave it to you!!!!!!!!!

[Ray Newman]

Wasn't Alice Cramden was the first one to fly to the moon??....

[Pete44ru]

Henri Giffard, France — 1852
On 24 September 1852 Giffard made the first powered and controlled flight, travelling 27 km (17 mi) from Paris to Trappes. This was the world's first passenger-carrying airship. Both practical and steerable, the hydrogen-filled airship was equipped with a 3 hp steam engine that drove a 3 bladed propeller.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_flying_machines


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[oldmossback]

Batman wasn't it?

[patrick56]

Hello and greetings from Finland! Who flew first? I think it was a guy named Weisskopf, if you are talking about an airplane!