The Two Wright Brothers and Another Post About Who "Flew" First

"What is truth?"--Pontius Pilate

One of many books that are written for our children. This one targets ages eight to 12 years.

"The first flight lasted only twelve seconds, a flight very modest compared to that of birds, but it was, nevertheless, the first in the history of the world in which a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in free flight, had sailed forward on a level course without reduction of speed, and had finally landed without being wrecked."--Orville Wright, 1908, describing his first attempt at powered flight December 17, 1903

Pages from Century magazine article, published 1908. The byline was both Orville and Wilbur Wright, but it was written by Orville. It is clear that Orville is already beginning to claim the crown as "first to fly." The quotation above was taken from this article, often referred to as the defining statement of the Wright brothers' "invention" of the airplane.

Twenty five years after Kitty Hawk, twenty years after the article, above was written by Orville for Century magazine, the "first flight" is celebrated, below, at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, NC. The plaque in the picture below reads:

"The first successful flight of an airplane was made from this spot by Orville Wright...."

Celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Wrights' attempts at flight. Orville is on the left.  By now he has totally usurped Wilbur's designation as "first to fly." Wilbur died in 1912, sixteen years before this event. Orville lived on to accept many awards and accolades for his claimed achievements, including doctorates from prestigious universities.

But Orville's hop of an estimated 120 feet was originally not accepted as a flight by aviation experts. 

Readers of this blog will have noted that we also have a hard time accepting that Orville Wright actually flew by definition December 17, 1903. We have many reasons, some given here. But the aviation history that is presented to us today as fact is mainly Orville's history. It would probably not be the same as Wilbur's would have been. That's not to say that Wilbur's own history wouldn't have been slanted in its own way, since we can demonstrate that Wilbur was also prone to tamper with the truth. But Wilbur died in 1912, and Orville lived on for another 36 years, directing his own version of the story with the help of many others, including editors and writers, such as Fred Kelly, his "ghost writer" * and biographer, Earl Findley, editor of U. S. Air Services magazine, and Henry J. Haskell, editor of the Kansas City Star, who married his sister Katharine.

If critical thinkers who are interested in the truth examine the brothers' statements over those of their witnesses, we might accept that Wilbur made a "sustained" flight  December 17, 1903, because we are told he took off from level ground and managed to stay in the air 852 feet before inadvertently hitting the ground, thus coming to a sudden stop, and damaging the plane. Wright aficionados don't like to call the end of the flight a crash, so we won't in this particular post, either. But Orville's so called "flight" of an estimated 120 feet just wasn't long enough to be called controlled or sustained.

Let's assume the highly unlikely premise that the brothers took off from level ground like they told their father they did in their December 17 telegram.. Let's look at some primary documents that prove that experts of that time, plus Orville himself (if we can believe his letter to Hammer [below]) did not accept his flight as an actual flight, even if it was from level ground

William J. Hammer, left, and Wilbur Wright

A Chronology of Aviation (link is to digitized reprint of the 1911 version) was published by William J. Hammer and Hudson Maxim in the year before Wilbur's death.

William Hammer's Chronology of Aviation that asserts Orville Wright's "flights" in 1903
didn't prove he had power and control.

Letter( above), from Orville Wright to William Hammer that accepts his Chronology of Aviation
Directly above is an excerpt of testimony by Hammer that demonstrates his knowledge
of the Wrights' flights was second hand. Hammer was paid to testify for the Wrights.

Below, we have clips from Octave Chanute's "Chronology of Aviation." His famous address "Recent Progress in Aviation" was delivered on 20 Oct., 1909, to members of the Western Society of Engineers Lecture and then published together with his "Chronology of Aviation" in the WSE Journal in April 1910.
According to Simine Short, author of Octave Chanute's biography, "Locomotive to Aeromotive," "Both were republished in Scientific American Supplement of 23, 30 July and 6, 13 August 1910. This was also republished in the Smithsonian Report for 1910."

Simine Short also states, "In regard to the World Almanac, published in Chicago, it was a reprint as well. It was originally submitted to E Jones and published in Jan 1909 Aeronautics." ** Chanute died November 10, 1910.

Chanute--friend, teacher, and mentor of the Wrights until 1909

The above Chronology of Aviation was compiled by Octave Chanute.

  
Note that Chanute didn't consider any of Orville Wright's "flights" "memorable" before 1908. Chanute credited Wilbur with "memorable" flights made in 1903, 1904, and 1905, based on the Wrights' claims. As I have stated before, Chanute had great faith in the honesty of the Wrights until later, and had not witnessed any of these claimed flights, so the information before 1908 is second hand information from the Wrights themselves, in a word, hearsay.

No one, including Chanute, knew that the Wrights had taken off from the side of the hill in 1903 except the five witnesses, the three surfmen, the farmer, and the 18 year old boy, because the witnesses had not come out with their first-hand statements. After witnesses averred more than once in written and signed affidavits that they had placed the Wright flyer on the rail on the side of the hill to take off (we might add, into a 21-27 mph headwind), the Wright "damage control" group went into high gear and discarded the witnesses' statements as evidence, saying that narrations that come thirty some years after the event can't be trusted. One might ask how the Wright historians can have it both ways, (1) five witnesses trotted out by the Wrights to prove they flew in 1903, (2) none of whose testimony we can trust?

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I believe we can honestly and safely state that Orville Wright was not the first to make a controlled, sustained, powered, heavier than air flight in a man carrying airplane. We can also discard the so called picture displayed as "the first flight in history," of Orville in a Wright flyer. Both are evidence, not of fact, but of propaganda and misleading information.

The photo the Wrights said was of the "first flight"

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Teachers of history accept what is served to them in their text books, and they will dish up what they are fed. That is not meant to be a disrespectful to the profession, because teachers are generally not required to be historians or researchers themselves.They depend on others to do it for them. They assume, I would think, it is done as honestly as is possible, based on facts that can be verified. If facts can not be verified, and are from one (only) biased source, we all need to be told so.

But served up on our teachers' platters for free, pop over to the Smithsonian website (link) and other Wright websites, and just look at examples of the many lesson plans developed for them by those, such as Smithsonian "experts," extolling the Wright version of history that they want to be taught to our children. Their veneration of the Wrights borders on religion. I, for one, don't want another's bias taught as truth to be accepted on faith, and then delivered to my descendants as "historical fact." It could be called a "brain washing,"since the story has little to do with religion, which is spiritual, and more to do with gigantic egos and profit motives. It is also aimed at the time when our children are the most vulnerable and trusting.

* "Ghostwriter" is not a precise description of Fred Kelly's writing of "The Wright Brothers" for Orville.The "facts" and tales for his biography were provided by Orville; and Kelly wrote, revised, and edited just as Orville dictated. But unlike a ghostwriter, Kelly received the byline. See the letters between the two in the 1940's when the biography was being written, digitized online at the Library of Congress website.- the author

**Many thanks to Simine Short for your corrections and contributions to this document. 

To be continued...

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