Timeline for Did Clement Ader make the first flight even before the Wright brothers?
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| Jun 17, 2020 at 8:28 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| Nov 27, 2014 at 8:37 | comment | added | glaucon | @PeterKämpf You forgot to mention another part of the Smithsonian dispute. Samuel P. Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian. His own attempts at powered flight using his aircraft 'Aerodrome' were complete failures and yet the 'Aerodrome' was displayed for a number of years in the Smithsonian as the first powered heavier-than-air aircraft. It was not too surprising then that Orville Wright insisted that if their craft was to be displayed it should given its proper priority. More details of this bizarre story here : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers#Smithsonian_feud . | |
| Nov 27, 2014 at 8:28 | comment | added | glaucon | @jean : I don't know if you're just kidding but the wikipedia page you cite mentions "official witnesses" as opposed to just plain witnesses. There were five witnesses present at Kill Devil Hills on Dec 17 1903 for the Wrights first flight, albeit not officers of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale but as that body didn't exist until almost two years later it would have been rather difficult to arrange. | |
| Nov 22, 2014 at 1:25 | comment | added | smci | @PeterKämpf: wow, the draft of history is negotiable...! | |
| Nov 21, 2014 at 18:18 | comment | added | jean | Don't forget Santos Dumont, the first to be able to do it with witness and able reproduce it anytime en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… | |
| Nov 21, 2014 at 15:58 | comment | added | Peter Kämpf | @slebetman: Actually, both wing warping and ailerons had been invented before. I consider the Wright brothers the first patent trolls in aviation. After all, they did not design new airplanes after the Flyer III, but tried to milk their patents. | |
| Nov 21, 2014 at 13:50 | comment | added | slebetman | @PeterKämpf: Indeed, the aerodynamicist (forgot his name) who the Wright Brothers consulted when researching flight got really pissed off that the Wright Brothers attempted to patent the airplane. Before the Wright Brothers, advances in flight were considered academic (what we'd today call open source). The Wright brothers didn't succeed in patenting the airplane, only the flex wing mechanism that gave them roll control. Ailerons were invented partly as a work-around for the patent. | |
| Nov 21, 2014 at 11:26 | comment | added | Peter Kämpf | Don't forget that there was a lively discussion before Orville gave the 1903 Flyer airplane to the Smithsonian. He had lended it to the British Museum before, precisely because the Smithsonian would not accept his condition that the Wright brothers must be named as the sole inventor of the airplane (which they weren't - it was a collective effort). After WWII the Smithsonian changed its mind and accepted the condition. | |
| Nov 21, 2014 at 3:50 | history | edited | Steve V. | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 215 characters in body
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| Nov 21, 2014 at 3:43 | history | answered | Steve V. | CC BY-SA 3.0 |