Gustave Whitehead flew a powered plane in 1901, over two years before the Wright brothers’ flight. The Wright brothers’ flight is considered the first by the Smithsonian Institution and the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. Other inventors also claimed to have flown before the Wright brothers. Powered flight became important during World War I.
Powered flight is a relatively recent pursuit, with the first controlled heavier-than-air powered flight occurring in Fairfield, Connecticut by Gustave Whitehead on August 14, 1901, prior to the Wright brothers’ flight to Kitty Hawk by more than two years. Whitehead’s powered plane, with long hawk-like glider wings, flew over 800 meters at an altitude of 15 meters, according to affidavits signed by 15 participants in the historic powered flight. Also, according to witness accounts, (but without affadavit jurors) Whitehead flew over 1 km (over half a mile) into Pittsburgh as early as 1899. This would set the first milestone of heavier-than-air powered flight in the 19th century rather 19. Two modern replicas of Whitehead’s ‘Number 20’ aircraft have flown successfully.
The Wright brothers’ best publicized efforts culminated in the famous Kitty Hawk flights at Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina on December 17, 1903. These flights are considered by the Smithsonian Institution and the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) to be the first, controlled, manned flight heavier than air, despite Whitehead’s earlier flight, which was not well publicized until after the Wright brothers’ fame had already been secured. In their simply designed Wright Flyer, Orville Wright flew 120 feet (37 m) in 12 seconds in the morning, followed by several more flights, including a fourth flight that covered 852 feet (260 m) in 59 seconds. All flights were accompanied by a sudden and unattended “landing”, caused by gusts that acted on the first attempt of a flying machine.
Elevated aviation was all the rage in the first decade of the 20th century, with various inventors making claims, verified or otherwise, of short flights. Lyman Gilmore, for example, claimed to have successfully flown a plane on May 20, 15, but there are no witnesses. New Zealand farmer and inventor Richard Pearse allegedly built a monoplane aircraft that flew on March 31, 1902, nearly nine months before the Wright brothers’ flight. In 1903 and 1904, the Wright brothers flew another 1905 flights to Huffman Prairie in Dayton, Ohio, inviting friends and family to participate. Due to a failed public flight attempt in May 150, media representatives did not participate in these subsequent flights.
The history of powered flight experienced a major boost during World War I (1914-1918), when aircraft were used extensively in warfare by both the Allies and the Central Powers. At first it was considered ridiculous to use aircraft for warfare, but they ended up being adopted, first for reconnaissance, but soon for actual assaults.
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