December 17, 1903 - Kitty Hawk, North Carolina - 12 seconds, 20 feet

[khaosworks]

"To invent an airplane ... is nothing. To build an airplane ... is something. But to fly ... is everything." - Otto Lilienthal

Comments

[shannachie.livejournal.com]

"... invented by a little old lady in Leningrad"
you probably know it:"...first motorized flight on August 14, 1901, by Gustav Weißkopf"
http://www.weisskopf.de/history.htm

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

"Whitehead, who had no engineering training, built a large number of model and full-size gliders and powered aircraft of various configurations from the mid-1890s into the first decade of the 20the century. They included three machines in which 'flights' are alleged to have been made before the Wrights' powered flights of 1903. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in April or May 1899 Whitehead and an assistant acting as 'stoker' are said to have flown approximately half a mile [0.8 km] in a steam-powered monoplane that attained an altitude of 20 to 25 ft [6 to 7.6 m] and struck a three-storey building between the roof and the lower part of the third storey. Then, at Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the early morning of 14 August 1901, Whitehead is supposed to have flown at least half a mile [0.8 km] (later increased to 1.5 miles [2.4 km] in his 36 ft [11m]-span 'No. 21' monoplane, powered by a 20 hp. calcium carbide (acetylene) engine, reaching a height of 40-50 ft [12-15 m]. This flight was 'reported' in a highly sensational newspaper article, which also stated that the aircraft had made an unmanned flight at 0200 hrs with two handlers running alongside holding rope restraints, and Whitehead operating the throttle. These accounts simply beggar belief, especially as no-one has yet been able to produce a successful acetylene engine.

"Then, in April 1902, Whitehead claimed that, on the afternoon of 17 January that year, he had made two flights in his 'No. 22' monoplane, which allegedly had a 40 hp five cylinder compression-ignition kerosene motor driving both its ground wheels and its twin propellers... Whitehead claimed that this wondrous machine, of which no photograph exists, would run on the ground at 50 mph [80 km/h], fly through the air at about 70 mph [113 km/h], and would fly at 100 mph [160 km/h], if he so desired.

"Strangely, after these apparently astounding successes, Whitehead reverted to simple hang-gliders, and never built another aircraft capable of powered flight. Available evidence shows that both the 'No. 21' and 'No. 22' lacked proper control systems. It also suggests that Whitehead was prone to make unjustifiable claims regarding his achievements, and many of his contemporaries in the aviation world found him untrustworthy."

-- Philip Jarrett, "Wright or wrong?", Fortean Times No. 178 (Dennis Publishing, January 2004), 42.