Didn't the Wright Brothers Aways Tell the Truth? Part 1

  "The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever 
that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the 
majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish 
than sensible."  -Bertrand Russell

      "All great truths begin as blasphemies." - George Bernard Shaw 

A good many historians today base their version of early aviation history on the statements of the Wright Brothers. But a critical thinker has to establish that we can depend on the Wrights' honesty and consistency, especially since we have already established that their descriptions of the first claimed flights are not consistent with those of two of their five witnesses. The Wrights say they took off from level ground on December 17, 1903. Witnesses Daniels and Etheridge state that they placed the plane on the side of the hill for the claimed flights that day. What do later publications, documents and letters tell us about truth in the Wrights' statements?

In a New York Times article dated 1951 (below), telegraph operator Alpheus Drinkwater stated that the Wrights didn't really fly; they only "glided" off Kill Devil Hill on December 17. Note that his statement backs up Daniels and Etheridge--that the "flights" were initiated from the hill. Drinkwater wasn't named by the Wrights as a direct witness of the first flights, as the article indicates. Still, his statement adds to doubts, since he was operating a telegraph in the area and news in a sparsely populated area gets around quickly.

Because Drinkwater's statement was made after Orville Wright died in 1948, Orville wasn't here to"correct" it. And ferreting out and correcting what he claimed were "errors" was a chore Orville  indulged in for 45 years. (Not inventing as he claimed he wanted to do.) You might say monitoring aviation news was one of his life's missions. Or you could say manipulating history in his favor was really Orville Wright's mission.

 From the beginning, the Wrights were acutely aware of  published accounts about themselves and their claimed achievements. Their scrapbooks are one testimony to that fact. And if they didn't like the writing, they weren't afraid to be very aggressive in getting the "story right" by contacting  writers, editors, and/or publishers.

The first published accounts of the December 17, 1903,  events at Kitty Hawk (actually Kill Devil Hills) were in newspapers the next day on the 18th. The telegram the brothers sent to their father, the Bishop after their claimed flights stated "Inform press," so we can be assured that the Wrights wanted the press to know they claimed they had flown. Many of the news articles were based, for the most part, on the telegram, so this backs up that the Wright family did get what the brothers told them to the papers.

But one account was mostly a fantastic story concocted by newsmen, including H. P. Moore, of the Virginia Pilot news (see link for article), who had gotten wind of the claimed flights December 17.  How they got their tip is subject to speculation, but there are some documents that can later help to clear it up. Short on facts and long on imagination, the newsmen wanted to scoop the story and made up what they didn't know. This story was picked up by other papers.

On January 5, the Wright brothers responded to the Virginia Pilot article by releasing to the news a fresh account. This personal version of the events of Dec.17 was given to the Associated Press to distribute. Their statement detailed more than previous accounts and made the events more believable.

As time went on, they would essentially need to stick to this account. Moreover, it would need to mesh with the account they had sent to their father in the telegram. "Four flights... all against twenty one mile wind started from level with engine power alone..."

From a written statement by the Wright brothers to the Associated Press, January 5, 1904

 "It had not been our intention to make any detailed public statement concerning the private trials of our power “Flyer” on the 17th of December last; but since the contents of a private telegram, announcing to our folks at home the success of our trials, was dishonestly communicated to the newspapermen at the Norfolk office, and led to the imposition upon the public, by persons who never saw the “Flyer” or its flights, of a fictitious story incorrect in almost every detail; and since this story together with several pretended interviews or statements, which were fakes pure and simple, have been very widely disseminated, we feel impelled to make some correction.  The real facts were as follows:

On the morning of December 17th, between the hours of 10:30 o’clock and noon, four flights were made, two by Orville Wright, two by Wilbur Wright.  The starts were all made from a point on the level sand about two hundred feet west of our camp, which is located a quarter of a mile north of the Kill Devil sand hill, in Dare County, North Carolina.  The wind at the time of the flights had a velocity of 27 miles an hour at ten o’clock, and 24 miles an hour at noon, as recorded by the anemometer at the Kitty Hawk Weather Bureau Station.  The anemometer is thirty feet from the ground.  Our own measurements, made with a hand anemometer at a height of four feet from the ground, showed a velocity of about 22 miles when the first flight was made, and 20 ½ miles at the time of the last one.  The flights were directly against the wind.  Each time the machine started from the level ground by its own power alone with no assistance from gravity, or any other source whatever.  After a run of about 40 feet along a monorail track, which held the machine eight inches from the ground, it rose from the track and under the direction of the operator climbed upward on an inclined course till a height of eight or ten feet from the ground was reached, after which the course was kept as near horizontal as the wind gusts and the limited skill of the operator would permit.  Into the teeth of a December gale the “Flyer” made its way forward with a speed of ten miles an hour over the ground and thirty to thirty-five miles an hour through the air.  It had previously been decided that for reasons of personal safety these first trials should be made as close to the ground as possible.  The height chosen was scarcely sufficient for maneuvering in so gusty a wind and with no previous acquaintance with the conduct of the machine and its controlling mechanisms. 

       Consequently the first flight was short.  The succeeding flights rapidly increased in length and at the fourth trial a flight of fifty-nine seconds was made, in which time the machine flew a little more than a half mile through the air, and a distance of 852 feet over the ground.  The landing was due to a slight error of judgment on the part of the aviator.  After passing over a little hummock of sand, in attempting to bring the machine down to the desired height, the operator turned the rudder too far; and the machine turned downward more quickly than had been expected.  The reverse movement of the rudder was a fraction of a second too late to prevent the machine from touching the ground and thus ending the flight.  The whole occurrence occupied little, if any, more than one second of time."

We also have Orville's diary account of the day's events coming up, neatly written in his journal. At what period of time he made that entry in his journal, who knows? But these accounts give us a base line to establish the Wrights' veracity. They have to be accepted as their official statement.

Keep in mind that no matter how many times they said it or published it, including the account in the telegram, the news account of Jan 5 released to the AP,  the entry in Orville's journal, and letters written to various people, it is the Wright brothers' account. There were no reporters there, only the five witnesses. All of the newspaper accounts were based on what the Wrights told them, or as in some cases, wildly fabricated. The Wrights' account is essentially the same account you will read in blogs, history books, Wright biographies, and the like. But common sense tells us that repeating a tale over and over again, asserted by brothers who had a lot to gain, simply doesn't make it the truth.

We need to examine whether the Wrights were consistent with their first accounts, as time went on.

Moreover, among the questions that also come up are: (a) whether the Wrights themselves really believed the four claimed flights were actually flights; (b) whether in fact, four flights were actually attempted that day, as other accounts contradict that claim; and

(c) whether the Wrights in truth packed up all the broken pieces of the original Wright flyer after it was wrecked, took them home, and stored them, later to be rebuilt and put on display. Some witness accounts even question that claim.

                                                             To be continued...