Wright Brothers "Hijacked History."--by Historian Paul Jackson*

 "The Wrights are claimed to have solved the mysteries of flight," states Aviation Historian Paul Jackson; "still to be solved is the mystery of how they managed to stage the first air hijack -- of the history of aviation."

Jackson's statement is the conclusion of an exceptional essay (below),  just released, regarding early aviation history, as presented by contemporary historians. Today's views have been unduly influenced by the many questionable claims of the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur.

Paul Jackson is writing in his private capacity as an Aviation Historian, not his public persona as Senior Editor of one of the world's most prestigious aviation publications, "Jane's All the World's Aircraft." --ed.*

Rare "close-up" photograph of the Wright  "Flyer" (III) at Kill Devil Hills, 1908. Note the inclined track
 for take off, even in 1908. Without such assistance of wind and gravity, the Wrights used a catapult, no doubt because the "Flyer" was under powered.--ed.**

"Inflated to bursting point -- the Wrights’ claims

by Aviation Historian Paul Jackson

Almost two years ago, the present reassessment of Gustave Whitehead’s aeronautical achievements was publicly launched with editorial endorsement in Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft. This, Jane’s was pleased to do, because the methods of research and assessment of results accorded to time-honoured procedure which generations of its editors have attempted to implement. The period under consideration was prior to the establishment of the Jane’s annual and the study did not attempt any comparison between the respective achievements of the Wright Brothers and Whitehead -- indeed the Wrights were most emphatic that there was no connection between their endeavours.

    There the matter might have rested, save for the insistence of some that it would have been impossible for anyone to have flown an aeroplane before the Wrights showed them how it was done. On that premise, Whitehead’s claim would have to be dismissed without the courtesy of a hearing — an unjust and unscholarly reaction. For reasons which will become apparent, that insistence makes the early editions of Jane’s a vital witness to evaluation of the Wright-primacy claim.

    The origin of the present dispute is in the 1940s when the Smithsonian Museum acquired what is described as the original, 1903 Wright Flyer. Documents originally withheld, but now in the public domain, show that the Wright family and their friends and advisors were permitted to write the description board below the exhibit. Not surprisingly, this resulted in a gross exaggeration of the Brothers’ achievements, which hyperbole the Smithsonian has declined to correct. Thus, it finds itself condemned to defend the patently indefensible.

    The words specified in the once-secret agreement between the Smithsonian and the Wright family, bestowing indefinite loan of the Flyer, are: “By original scientific research the Wright Brothers discovered the principles of human flight. As inventors, builders, and flyers they further developed the aeroplane, taught man to fly, and opened the era of aviation.” This sweeping and absolute declaration leaves little room for Whitehead — or, indeed, for any of the other early pioneers mentioned in the aviation history books. However, both Wright claims may be demolished with nothing more potent than rational argument.

    Firstly, Orville and Wilbur wrote that they were inspired to begin their quest for flight by the descriptions and photographs which were being published in the early 1890s of Otto Lilienthal’s gliding achievements. Clearly, therefore, Lilienthal, or a predecessor, had discovered most of the fundamentals of aviation before the Wrights had given the slightest thought to the matter. Taking credit for one’s mentor’s invention is poor form.

    The second claim summons Jane’s as a ‘near witness’. Its first edition did not appear until 1909, but in this matter, the Wrights only effectively appeared on the scene in the previous year, 1908. This proximity assists in placing the Wrights’ contribution to flight in dispassionate perspective.

    It is seldom appreciated that the iconic Wright “1903 first flight” photograph was not produced until 1 September 1908. Before then, great efforts were made to keep the Flyer and its technicalities secret — with such success that some believed the brothers did not even exist. The first surreptitiously taken images from a photographer hiding in undergrowth only appeared in May 1908. It was at an air display in France in August 1908 that the Wrights revealed the Flyer to the public and allowed other, perhaps ‘rival’, aviators to see it close-up. The Wrights did not enlighten, offer to inform, or teach anybody anything until August 1908 — almost five years after they left Kitty Hawk.

    The name of the event at which they unveiled their invention is a clue to why they were too late with their supposed magnanimity. While the Wrights were secretly developing their Flyer, the Europeans had taught themselves to fly and had produced enough flying machines of various (including non-Wright) configurations to put together an air show. Creditably and without doubt, the Wrights had the best-performing aircraft at the show, but that is not quite the same as having the only aircraft.

    That several other pioneers produced flying machines in Europe without the Wrights’ assistance, and at about the same time, confounds those who would argue that “Only the Wrights could have invented the aeroplane.” Furthermore, having seen that others had the same ability at the same time, and could draw from a common fund of basic knowledge, it becomes logically impossible summarily to dismiss any other contemporary claimant to membership of that ‘flying club’ without proper investigation. If the Wrights had some special knowledge or technology denied to others, its acquisition was a pointless diversion from the task in hand, for the Europeans managed to get into the sky without it.

    Perhaps, it may be claimed, the Wrights’ appearance in France showed the Europeans the futility of their present path and converted them to the Wright way of building aeroplanes. There was, however, no change of direction. Sensation though the Flyer was in France, within a year it had been eclipsed by Bleriot’s cross-Chanel machine. The Bleriot XI’s configuration could not have been more different: It had the elevator at the rear (not the front); it was a monoplane (not a biplane); and the propeller was in the nose (not behind the wings). It was the aeroplane layout immediately recognisable today.

    Had the Flyer been so unique and sensational when it appeared out of ‘nowhere’ in August 1908, it would be reasonable to expect the first edition of Jane’s, a mere 15 months later, to have mentioned the fact that the book could not have existed without the Brothers’ immense contribution. Reviewing the world of aviation as it then stood, Fred Jane’s Foreword found it unnecessary to make any mention of the Wrights at all. Their aircraft (and its licence-built copies) is treated in the body of the book with no greater reverence than any other machine; and the longest entry in the book is that reserved for the Bleriot XI. The Wright was already yesterday’s aeroplane.

    The reason why Fred Jane launched his annual in 1909 was that there were so many different shapes of aircraft about that a guide was necessary. The claim that the world of aviation was, at the time, divided into (1) Wright types and (2) no-hopers does not survive scrutiny on several levels. Jane’s was summoned into existence precisely because the Wrights were not showing the world how an aircraft should be built and flown — or, at least, the whole world was not listening, and was getting the job done with alternative tools.

    It is undeniable that the Wright Flyer inspired many copies in 1909, and this is testimony to its flying qualities. But how strong was the Brothers’ influence on what real people were doing with real aeroplanes in real time?

    The pages of the 1909 Jane’s provide an answer. Analysing those aircraft which are illustrated by a photograph and/or drawing, it can be seen how many conform to the Wright canard-pusher-biplane configuration. There were 126 illustrated aircraft (excluding licensed versions) in the book, of which 42 employed the Wright layout — exactly a third. Nearly as many (38) were monoplanes, all but three with tractor propellers. Another 15 were biplanes with rear elevators and six were tractor triplanes with rear elevators. Discounting helicopters and kites, another 20, despite illustration, had layouts which are difficult to define.

     Perhaps, the Wrights’ 1908 ‘lessons’ were a little too recent for assimilation in 1909. Jumping four years to the 1913 Jane’s makes the position clearer, practical experiment having had ample opportunity to shape events. The matter may be summarised in the entry for the Wright Company, which had, even itself, abandoned the foreplane.

    The 1913 book illustrates 140 aircraft (with only one, additional indeterminate design), a mere 17 of which are to the Wright configuration. Its numbers were falling precipitately. The monoplane tractor (59) and biplane tractor (37), both with conventional tails, dominate. Pushers account for 25, most of them biplanes. Conclusively, therefore, the heyday of the Wright aeroplane design was in the year after it had been revealed — before the realisation dawned (reinforced by Bleriot) that those working on tractor designs with elevators at the rear were right all along.

    With hindsight, it can be seen that one ‘achievement’ of the Wrights was to misdirect a third of 1909’s aircraft programmes down a dead-end street. Back in the USA, they went on to exert such a malign influence on their homeland’s aviation that the country that invented the aeroplane was forced to buy British and French aircraft when it entered the First World War a decade later, because its own were so far behind in technology. The Wrights, their business partners and their lawyers were responsible for this squandered legacy.

    In the Foreword to the 1913 edition, Fred Jane credits the Wrights with being the first to fly an aeroplane. Curiously, this is an accolade he felt unable to bestow during the previous three years, when memories were fresher and the impact of 1908 far stronger. His endorsement was, of course, coincident with publication of Orville Wright’s self-flattering How We Invented The Airplane. Were ‘the victors’ already writing their own history? Certainly, the Wrights were the first aviators to write articles telling the world they were the first aviators.

    The Wright Flyer was in the limelight for fractionally less than a year in 1908-09. Its successor was no better than a dozen other contemporaries of different configurations and, in any case, Wilbur and Orville had lost interest in the aeroplane by then. There was nothing more from them. The Wrights are claimed to have solved the mysteries of flight; still to be solved is the mystery of how they managed to stage the first air hijack -- of the history of aviation."



 *Due to a series of miscommunications, it appears that I didn't have Senior Editor Paul Jackson's direct permission, as I thought, to publish this essay on my blog (even though the essay had been disseminated). Jackson didn't write this essay with the intention of having it published. In the spirit of true research, I feel I need to correct the record, as all honest and responsible researchers would do. My apologies to Paul Jackson and the readers of this blog.

** Photo and caption of the Wright "Flyer" in 1908 were added to this essay, not by writer Paul Jackson, but by "Truth in Aviation History" editors

"Truth in Aviation History" blog posts to be continued...



   

Pieces of the Wright Puzzle. What Really Happened December 17, 1903, Part II

 "Truth is truth to the end of reckoning"--William Shakespeare

"It takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen."--Homer Simpson, "The Simpsons"

Kill Devil Hill, Outer Banks, North Carolina, (back side). This is the hill the Wrights used to conduct their aviation experiments and attempts at powered flight, according to their witnesses from the U. S. Life Saving Service.The Wrights declared they made their attempts at powered flight December 17, 1903, not from the hill, but from "level ground."

When the Wright brothers were experimenting with flight at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, from 1900 through 1903, the Surfmen at Kill Devil Hills Life Saving Station provided them with an enormous amount of invaluable assistance. Consequently, these men were at hand to see events as they unfolded. The precursors of the Coast Guard, they were called Surfmen or Life Savers at the time. Their most critical job was to save lives and property along the dangerous coast of the Outer Banks. The U. S. Life Savers were not known as Coast Guardsmen until the year 1915, when the Life Saving Service and the Revenue Cutter Service were combined to become our U. S. Coast Guard. 

 

These underpaid heroes received no wages from the Wrights other than the pleasure of watching and helping.  As was typical of the Wright brothers, they gave no credit to the Surfmen or to virtually any others who freely provided them with needed assistance and advice ( see former posts), but it is clear that without their help, the brothers could not have carried on their experiments or at least carried them on to the extent they did. 


Thus in their website, "The Indispensable Men," the United States Coast Guard reminds us:  
"...(John Daniels) and the other members of the crew assisted the brothers as described in the following article. More importantly they acted as eyewitnesses to the flight. Who better to verify the flight than five employees of the U.S. Government?" (There were three of the proud and honest surfmen who observed on the day of December 17, 1903--ed.)
  http://www.uscg.mil/history/faqs/Wright_Brothers.asp

   "...these tough Outerbanksmen were privileged to witness history being made first-hand. Their willingness to assist the brothers with their experiments led directly to those experiments' success and they are therefore worthy of mention in this story of mankind's first heavier-than-air powered flight."

But when it comes to accepting their statements about what happened on December 17, 1903, Wright historians accuse Coast Guardman, Alpheus Drinkwater, who said he relayed the first telegram that day, of "concocting" the truth. As for actual witnesses, U. S. Surfmen, John Daniels and Adam Etheridge, their narrations got them characterized as old men who had forgotten or confused the facts. Why? It's apparent that their statements don't support the story told by the Wright brothers.

U. S. Life Saving Station at Kill Devil Hills, N. C.

Recap: Historical evidence indicates that on the morning of December 17, 1903, Surfmen witnesses, John Daniels and Willie Dough, phoned Joe Dosher, the telegraph operator at Kitty Hawk  that the Wrights had achieved a  flight.They placed their call from the  U. S. Life Saving Station (right) at Kill Devil Hills, N. C. The two Surfmen had pledged to inform Harry Moore, a Norfolk, Virginia, reporter, if the Wrights were successful; and Dosher could telegraph Norfolk from Kitty Hawk. The Kill Devil Hills station pictured here was a fifteen minute walk from the Wright camp, and it's accepted that the flight attempt we're concerned with was initiated at 10:35 a. m..

According to the telegraph operator in Norfolk, Virginia, C. C. Grant, it was a little after 11 a. m. when he received the telegraph from the Surfman to be delivered to Moore, about the first "flight" of December 17. The timeline fits perfectly.

Grant gave Moore the message personally by 11:40 that morning, and Moore called the Kill Devil Hills Life Saving Station for more information. A Surfman on the other end of the line (probably Daniels) confirmed the message. According to Moore, the Surfman said that "at last the nuts had flown. One of those fellows flew just like a bird. The two of them put gasoline in the engine in their contraption and after it glided down a hill on a wooden track, it went up. It was Orville that flew and he came down safely." http://www.virginialiving.com/virginiana/history/the-big-story/#prev

Obviously, neither the three Surfmen, who witnessed the Wright brothers' attempts at flight on December 17, 1903, nor Harry Moore, who reported for the Norfolk newspaper, knew that the criteria for a true powered, sustained flight does not include a take off from a hill into a strong head wind. The Wrights must have known, however, because they insisted from the beginning that they made four flights December 17 all from level ground.  The only witnesses who could verify or refute their claim were the three Surfmen who were there--John Daniels,Willie Dough, and Adam Etheridge; a farmer, W. C. Brinkley, whom Wright historians call a lumber dealer and never made a statement; as well as an 18 year old boy, Johnny Moore, who was considered "slow" by the residents of the area. See the 1933 letter included below from resident William Tate to a Mr. Miller. Tate states in the letter that "Johnny Moore was a youth who just happened along....He was not a very bright boy and of
course grew up to be a very illiterate man."

Many years later, it was claimed that one or two other Lifesavers watched from the Life Saving Station a mile away, more than likely because the Wrights needed more witnesses for one of the Wright lawsuits.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

"It's just like yesterday to me," said witness John Daniels in 1927, 24 years later. "The Wrights got their machine out of its shed that morning, and we helped them roll it up to the top of the highest hill, on a monorail." The quotation is from an interview of Daniels, then a Coast Guardsman, by a W. O. Saunders of Colliers magazine.( Emphasis mine)

"...The thing went off with a rush" said Daniels in the interview, " and left the rail as pretty as you please, going straight out into the air maybe 120 feet when one of its wings tilted and caught in the sand, and the thing stopped."
"We got it back up on the hill again, and this time Wilbur got in. The machine got a better start this time and went off like a bird. It flew near about a quarter of a mile...and the rudder hit the sand." (Emphasis mine)

The Saunders interview for Colliers is recounted in the book "The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright," edited by Peter L.Jakab and Rick Young, The Smithsonian Institution, year 2000, pp 274+

In the 1932 "Daily Advance," Elizabeth City, N. C., Daniels maintains his assertion that they placed the Wright "flyer" on the hill to launch the flights on the 17th. Only the two so called "flights" are mentioned here again, Orville's short hop and Wilbur's (claimed 852 feet by the Wrights)--and Daniels states that Wilbur went up "later." This indicates that Wilbur's attempt was made, as we believe, in the afternoon.
 

In  1933, William  F. Tate was asked  by a Wright advocate from, Dayton, Ohio, named William V. Miller for names of witnesses who had observed the Wrights activities and flights at the Outer Banks. Postmaster William Tate was an OuterBanksman, who had encouraged the Wrights to come to Kitty Hawk and become a life long admirer. Miller was part of a group in 1931 interviewing various witnesses and trying to back up the Wrights' claims, http://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=following

Tate's answer, in part, is presented as follows:

"Department of Commerce
Lighthouse Service
fifth district
Coinjock, N.C.
June 7th 1933
My Dear Mr. Miller.
Replying to your letter of June 2nd I will say that as to the names of persons
who were present at the Wrights camp during their experiments in 1900-1901-
1902-1903, there were many people who at different times visited the camp, but
many of them who were men at that time have passed to the great beyond, I
refer of course to people who were middle aged men at that time Many small
boys of course visited the camp but their juvenile interest at that time was not
sufficient to be of any use to You from an historical standpoint. Of the five
who witnessed the first flight three are living. J.T. Daniels and A.D. Etheridge both
of Manteo N.C. Johnny Moore was a youth who just happened along. He is
living and his address is Collington N.C. He was not a very bright boy and of
course grew up to be a very illiterate man."

At the request of Mr. Miller, John Daniels wrote the following letter dated 1933. (Transcription immediately below the letter.)

"Manteo, N. C.
 June 30--1933

Dear friend,
I Don't know very much to write about the flight. I was there and it was on Dec. the 17,-1903  about 10 o'clock they carried the machine up on the hill and Put her on the track, and started the engine and they through (sic) a coin to see who should take the first go, so it fell on Mr. Orival, and he went about 100 feet or more, and then Mr Wilbur takes the machine up on the Hill and Put her on the track and he went off across the Beach about a half a mile or more before he came Down, he flew so close to the top of a little hill that he pulled the Rudder off so we had to Bring her Back to the camp, and it was there I got tangled up in the machine and she Blew off across the Beach with me hanging in it, and she went all to Pieces It didn't hurt me very much I got Bruised me some. They Packed up every thing and went home at Dayton. that Ended the Day. I snapped the first Picture of a Plain that ever flew. They were very nice men and we all enjoyed Being out at the camp with them [mosly every ?] Days
     that accident made me the first airoplane causiality [casualty] in the world and I have Piece of the upright that I was holding on to when it fell.
      would be glad to Render any information at any time you need it
                                                                      Sincerely, John T. Daniels
                                                                      Manteo NC
(emphasis, of course, mine)

In even another statement on 12 March 1935, Daniels, then a member of the Nags Head Coast Guard Station, said,

"Orville Wright made the first flight in the plane with the power in it, between then and eleven o'clock, the 17th of December, 1903, and he went some 100 feet.  Then we carried it back on the hill and put it on the track and Mr. Wilbur Wright got in the machine and went about one half mile out across the beach towards the ocean.  Then we carried the machine back to camp and set it down and the wind breezed up and blew it over and just smashed it to pieces with me hanging on to it.  The way they decided who was to make the first flight was as they were talking, Wilbur and Orville walked aside and flipped a coin, and Orville won the toss and he made the first flight."   (Italics mine)

Note again that only two flight attempts are mentioned in these statements, Orville's hop at 10:35 a. m. and Wilbur's final attempt, both from the hill.

Below, a quotation from

Stanley W. Kandebo

Assistant Managing Editor

Aviation Week & Space Technology confirms the lack of respect that Wright historians give to the testimony of the witnesses.

http://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&

"Obviously, after 30 years, time has played some tricks with his memory and Daniels has

combined some events that occurred on December 14, 1903 with those of December 17,

1903. This is something he also did in an interview that was written in 1927 by

newspaperman W. O. Saunders. Daniels has the Wrights taking the machine "up the hill"and conducting the famous coin toss on December 17,  events clearly described in Orville's diary as occurring on December 14, the date of Wilbur's aborted flight.

Daniels, who was a part of the activities on both days, does get the 17th's sequence of flights correct, but the description of Wilbur's brush with a sand dune could be describing the events of the 14th. On the other hand, it could have just been Daniels' vantage point that caused him to describe this as he did. According to Orville's diary, on the 17th, at the end of Wilbur's second flight that day he plunged into a small hummock, breaking up the front rudder after a flight of 852 feet, not the half mile or so that Daniels recalled."

Note that Kandebo, like other Wright historians, clearly gives the Wrights the final word on what happened. They never appear to question the integrity of the Wrights' statements, as many did with reason towards the beginning of the last century. Today if Orville's "diary" states the flights on the 17th were from level ground, etc., then that word is gospel--and the witnesses are, therefore, forgetful and mostly all wrong. True, Daniels tends to exaggerate and vary his estimate of the length of Wilbur's last "flight/glide."The 852 feet the Wrights said might have seemed like half a mile when moving the 600 plus pound plane back to camp in the wind and the cold. But there is no reason to disbelieve Daniels when he says that the Wrights tossed a coin on the 17th of December simply because Orville says they tossed a coin on the 14th. Might they not have tossed a coin on both days?

Can we accept that contemporary Wright historians like Kandebo of "Aviation Week and Space Technology" really have a case that the Life Savers were too old to remember the facts? Had too much time gone by after the events of December 17 when they made their statements? It's possible, of course. Most of us can't remember details of what happened yesterday. But then most yesterdays aren't associated with momentous events.

 To be continued in Part III...

Pieces of the Wright Puzzle: What Really Happened December 17, 1903. Part I

"My mind is made up; don't confuse me with the facts"!--Oft repeated quote

 "Skepticism is the first Step towards truth." --Denis Diderot

"

Harry P. Moore, reporter, who "scooped the Wright story of a "first flight."

"I got in touch with one of the Life Savers by telephone, and he told me that 'at last the nuts had flown. One of those fellows flew just like a bird. The two of them put gasoline in the engine in their contraption and after it glided down a hill on a wooden track, it went up. It was Orville that flew and he came down safely.'"--Harry P. Moore, reporter

Two Brothers, Three Telegrams, Only Two Attempts at Flight?

 December 17,  1903, is celebrated as a milestone in flight for the whole world. It is the day that we are told the "first manned-powered-controlled-heavier-than-air-sustained flight" was made in all of history. The achievement was claimed by Orville Wright of the Wright brothers.

But the Wright brothers' accounts of what happened that day at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, leave us with stray puzzle pieces and bits of information that just don't fit into their story.  For instance, Alpheus Drinkwater, who later became a Coast Guardsman, was operating a telegraph line north of Kitty Hawk that day. He has stated that he relayed a telegram for the Wrights that is not the famous one (pictured below) sent by the Wrights to their father.The telegram Drinkwater relayed actually contradicts that one. What's more, as everyone knows, the Wrights claimed their flyer took off from level ground. But witnesses, John Daniels and Adam Etheridge, signed statements saying they set the plane for the take offs onto the side of the hill. The Wrights also say in the famous telegram to their father that they took off four times, all in the morning. But the witnesses in their affidavits only mention two take offs and don't support that they were all in the morning.

Adding to the puzzle "misfits," a telegrapher in Norfolk, Virginia, named C.C. Grant stated that he received a message from witnesses, John Daniels and Willie Dough, at a little after 11:00 in the morning of the 17th that there had been a successful flight. Daniels and Dough were supposedly assisting the Wrights with their "four flights" between 10 a. m. and noon. How could they have sent a telegram that morning? Especially, since the telegraph office at Kitty Hawk was an estimated four miles from the Wright camp? If we really want to know the truth, every statement by everyone must be seriously considered.

We have expressed concern before that "primary documents" from a single source ( the Wrights themselves) can not always be trusted. So we posed this question in a previous blog post: where can we go to get the facts and assure ourselves of what really happened?

    
For honest and fair answers, we must compare the primary documents and statements that were recorded, not just by the Wrights, but by their witnesses and by any other people who were associated with the events of the day. If we look for them, we can find them.  Let's assume, for now, that these other documents and statements are indeed factual. 

Astonishing as it may seem to those who accept the traditional history, we notice disturbing contradictions with the Wright story almost immediately. Yet the accounts other than the Wrights' more or less agree, even though some people undoubtedly didn't know what the others were saying. We are smack up against the possibility/probability that the Wrights weren't telling the truth about more issues than whether they took off  "with engine power alone" (Note: If you take off into a headwind of 21-27 mph, no one can deny that the wind is assisting your engine.)

Refer to the Wright telegram, below, sent at the end of the day, December 17.

The telegram sent December 17, 1903 by the Wrights to their father Bishop M Wright after their last attempt at flight. According to my research, this was the second telegram they sent that day.

Consider this then. There is another possible scenario that includes the statements other than the Wrights' and is probably more nearly what really happened.  This explanation fits the puzzle pieces together nicely, but we have to practically scrap as factual the Wrights' famous telegram (above) to their father, Milton. To true Wright believers this is totally unacceptable, even heresy. To critical thinkers, it's an interesting possibility.

Alpheus Drinkwater (right), pictured in a later year, who relayed the Wrights' telegram to their sister, Katharine, about Orville's initial attempt  at powered flight on December 17, 1903. The Wright monument at Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina is in the background.

Let's look at Alpheus Drinkwater's story through a quotation taken directly from a United States Coast Guard Web Site. "The Indispensable Men."

          "...a future Coast Guardsman, A. [Apheus] Drinkwater, was working as a repairman for the U.S. Weather Bureau in 1900 out of Currituck Inlet when he first heard about the Wright Brothers. He colorfully recounted that: 'while making repair trips down the coast I heard of those two crazy islanders who were at Kill Devil Hills making attempts to fly. I didn't pay much attention to them, everyone considered them nutty.

         Three years later, on 17 December 1903, Drinkwater was working at a wreck station set up to monitor the stranded U.S. Navy submarine USS Moccasin which had run aground near the Currituck Beach Lighthouse.* He had a telegraph line set up that was linked to Norfolk, Virginia.  The local commercial telegraph operator apparently could not get though to the mainland 'on account of the wire being heavy'** so he asked Drinkwater to send a message for the Wrights. Drinkwater agreed, noting 'The message was to Miss Katherine Wright, Dayton Ohio, and read as follows, as best as I recollect. 'FLIGHT SUCCESSFUL. DON'T TELL ANYBODY ANYTHING. HOME FOR CHRISTMAS. SIGNED ORVILLE.' This message was given to the Weather Bureau office at Norfolk which handled all commercial messages along the coast from Cape Henry to Hatteras."

Note: It would be easy to confuse the Drinkwater telegram with the one received by Milton Wright, the brothers' father, two days before, on the 15th, after Wilbur tried and failed a powered flight on December 14. In his diary entry, below, Milton writes that the brothers stated "keep quiet."

Entry in Milton Wright's diary dated December 15, 1903 after the Wrights' first and only flight attempt on December 14. This attempt, according to the Wrights, was initiated by Wilbur from the hill at Kill Devil Hills

Let's accept for now that the telegram Drinkwater describes was sent to Katharine, the Wright brothers' sister, just as Drinkwater says, on December 17, 1903. How can that be? Would the Wrights send two telegrams on the 17th, one saying "Don't tell anybody anything" and the other saying "Inform press"? (Refer again to the telegram to their father pictured above.) It can be because the first telegram was likely sent to Katharine after the first flight attempt on
December 17 by Orville.

It means that, surprisingly, after Orville's first claimed attempt about 10:35 a. m. that day, the Wright brothers, or at least one of them, hiked, probably to the Kill Devil Hills life saving station one mile away, and initiated the telegram by phone to Katharine by calling the telegraph office four miles away at Kitty Hawk. Then they/he hiked the mile back to camp. Such a round trip, totaling two miles, would have taken at least a half an hour. They wouldn't have gotten back, if we include Orville's flight attempt, the hike, and sending the message, until after 11:15, if not much later (of course, unless they flew!). After being told so many times that the Wrights made four flight attempts in the morning, their claim begins to seem preposterous. Especially if we include any repairs to the plane between flights. But it's only the Wrights, so far as I know, who claim that there was a total of four flights that morning.  Please note that all five assistants plus the Wrights were needed for the flight attempts. It would have taken all hands on deck to move and launch the plane. Imagine lugging it up the hill. It weighed over 600 pounds without the pilot.

What about the telegram supposedly sent in the morning by witnesses Daniels and Dough and received in Norfolk, Virginia, by C.C. Grant? It would also have been phoned to the telegraph operator at Kitty Hawk from the Life Saving Station at Kill Devil Hills.This would have to be after the first flight attempt on the 17th, as well, unbeknownst to the Wrights, of course. To support this theory, we present, below, the primary document that backs that up. It was written and signed in 1929 by C. C. Grant. C. (Charles) C. Grant was on duty at the Weather Bureau office in Norfolk on December 17, sitting in for the regular man, James J. Gray, according to Stephen Kirk in his book "First in Flight."
Transcription of the document at the end of this post**
.

A primary document written by C.C. Grant, telegrapher, stating that witnesses Daniels and Dough wired his office the morning of December 17, 1903, to inform Harry Moore, reporter, of the Wrights first attempt at powered flight.

Grant says (above) that shortly after 11 a.m., a message came through signed by Dough and Daniels, stating that the"Wrights made a short flight this morning and will try again this afternoon." Voila! Here we have it! This document backs up the contention that after Orville Wright attempted a flight at about 10:35 a. m., witnesses John Daniels and Willie Dough also hiked the mile from the camp to the Kill Devil Hills station, which would have taken about fifteen minutes. There they telephoned a message to the Kitty Hawk station to be telegraphed to a reporter named Harry P. Moore in Norfolk, who is pictured in later years at the beginning of this blog post. Their message would have been telegraphed by Joseph Dosher in Kitty Hawk to the bureau office in Norfolk and received by Grant, as he says, a little after 11 a. m. This puzzle piece fits into our theory. Beautifully. The Dough/Daniels hike to Kill Devil Hills station would have been made about the same time that Orville and/or Wilbur made their hike and sent their message to their sister Katharine that was relayed to Norfolk by Alpheus Drinkwater.

But what's this about a reporter? Why are witnesses Daniels and Dough telegraphing a reporter after Orville's flight attempt? The story goes that the reporter by the name of Harry P. Moore had heard that the Wrights were planning to attempt powered flight. Moore befriended the surfmen, Daniels and Dough (not called Coast Guard until later), and made them pledge to let him know if there was a successful flight. A reporter like Moore knew a potential scoop when he saw one!

Hint: This is where and how Moore got his information that was printed the next morning in the "Virginian-Pilot" newspaper. The Wrights said he got it from the telegraph operators (that would be Dosher, telegraph operator at Kitty Hawk, and/or Grant) leaking the Wrights' information from the telegram(s) they had sent.The Wrights apparently never knew the real story. Since reporter Moore didn't know enough details, he and other newsmen at the "Virgina Pilot" painted a very elaborate tale to flesh out the story, much of which couldn't be true. But Moore knew quite a bit. He had apparently been at the camp at Kill Devil Hills with his surfman friends Daniels and Dough before and had observed the Wright's flyer/glider. Another piece of the puzzle fits. Again, beautifully.  http://www.virginialiving.com/virginiana/history/the-big-story/http://www.virginialiving.com/virginiana/history/the-big-story/

Front page of the "Virginian-Pilot" newspaper with Harry P. Moore's "scoop"

Daniels and Dough didn't know that the "flight" didn't qualify as a true powered and sustained flight if it was launched down the hill into a 21-27 mph headwind. Neither did Moore. As far as Daniels was concerned, it was a flight, or he was told it was. In a statement on 12 March 1935, Mr. J. T. Daniels, then a member of the Nags Head Coast Guard Station, said "...all he knew about the machine was that, in 1902, the Wrights were using a glider, which they used until 1903, when they made the machine and put power in it." (from a U. S. Coast Guard web site)

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So here is the revised timeline on Thursday, December 17, 1903, Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina:

--Before 10:35 a. m. The Wrights flag for help from the surfmen. Five people show up, including three surfmen, Daniels, Dough, and Etheridge, and they set the flyer on the track for take off. (Daniels and Etheridge say the track was on the hill.)

--10:35 a. m. Orville makes his first attempt at flight.

He is in the air for an estimated 120 feet hop. A lever for throwing off the engine is broken, and the skid under the elevator is cracked when the machine hits the ground.

--10:35-11 a.m. The Wrights and witnesses Daniels and Dough hike the mile to the Kill Devil Hills Life Guard Station fifteen minutes one way. Without the Wrights' knowledge, Daniels and Dough telephone that a successful flight has been made to Dosher at Kitty Hawk who mans the telegraph line there. Dosher telegraphs their message immediately to Grant in Norfolk, who takes the message personally to Harry Moore, the reporter. But because there is too much traffic on the telegraph line to Norfolk, Alpheus Drinkwater in Currituck has to relay the message by Orville that announces a successful flight to his sister, Katharine. Drinkwater sends this message on his own line to the central office at Norfolk.

--After 11 a. m. C. C. Grant telegrapher in Norfolk, receives the telegram sent by Dosher for Daniels and Dough to reporter Moore. He walks it over to Moore's residence, arriving about 11:40. The telegram states that the Wrights have made one flight and are going to make another attempt in the afternoon. Moore calls the surfmen at the Life Savers' station sometime after he receives the telegram at 11:40. He gets a confirmation (see the quotation by Moore at the beginning of this post. Moore says he was told that "...The two of them put gasoline in the engine in their contraption and after it glided down a hill on a wooden track, it went up.")

--After 11:40 plus until ?: Daniels, Dough, and Etheridge possibly hike the mile back to the Wright camp, which takes over fifteen minutes. They have very little time left (one minute?) to make three more attempts at flight before noon as the Wrights claim they did in their telegram to their father. It's much more likely that the Life Savers stayed at the Station for lunch (burned pancakes?) and returned in the afternoon for another flight attempt, as C. C. Grant says in his signed document.

--After 12 p. m. Sometime in the afternoon, the last attempt is made after which the "flyer" is blown to pieces by the wind. Then the Wrights hike to Kitty Hawk and send their telegram to their father that states: "Success four flights thursday morning...inform Press"

If the "flights" were made from the hill, it would have taken more time to haul the 600 pound flyer up the hill and to set it up. The hill was 1/4 mile from the Wright camp. I don't yet know how far it was from the Life Guard Station.

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One website claims Wright historians have disputed Drinkwater's claim altogether, essentially calling it "hogwash" as follows: "A convincing and colorful story concocted by Manteo resident and telegraph operator Alpheus Drinkwater about how he had transmitted the Wrights' message, told repeatedly to publications, including Reader's Digest, has since been refuted by historians...It wasn't until decades later, when Wright biographer Kelly contradicted Moore's - and telegrapher Drinkwater's - versions of events that the record changed."

Our readers must certainly know by now that Orville's biography, "The Wright Brothers," plus other publications about the Wrights were written by Fred Kelly with "facts" supplied by Orville, who monitored the writing every step of the way. Orville could not admit that the Drinkwater or Moore stories were true, because they don't fit in with his narrative of what happened. His typical solution to discrepancies from his stories was to claim that everyone else was either a liar, a dreamer, or had a short memory. It was a fairly consistent pattern, that, unfortunately, has been picked up by most contemporary aviation historians.


In "The Wright Brothers" by Fred Kelly, Orville Wright states that Dosher sent the telegram supposedly discrediting Drinkwater.  Joseph J. Dosher was the telegraph operator for Kitty Hawk, the single Weather Bureau employee there, and the chief of the Life Saving Station. Dosher would have had to be the telegrapher who sent the famous telegram by the Wrights to Milton, their father, after the last flight attempt on December 17. That telegram would have gone through the Norfolk hub, then on through the commercial lines to Dayton. It would be Dosher who sent the message to C.C. Grant in Norfolk by Dough and Daniels addressed to Moore. But Dosher most likely initiated the telegram to Katharine, the Wrights' sister. It was this message that would have been relayed by Alpheus Drinkwater from Currituck to Norfolk, Virginia, then on to Dayton.

It's germane to weigh the question, why in the world would the Wright brothers not tell the truth about what happened December 17? I believe they had many reasons to manipulate the facts. Consider that they had left their bicycle business months out of the year for several years and spent their money for a quest that most people at the time thought was a fool's errand. (Including their father, Bishop Wright, as I understand).  Consider that by 1903 they thought that they were in a race with Smithsonian Secretary Langley to be first to build a successful, heavier than air, man carrying plane. Consider, that they had seen an opportunity to make a ton of money--despite what they told Octave Chanute, their mentor. (He found out later.) They were planning a monopoly of aviation with a patent for their flyer, for which they needed primacy.

It's my opinion, too, that by December 17, 1903, the Wrights were running out of time (and probably money). The weather at Kill Devil Hills was turning bitterly cold as winter was setting in. The day of December 17th was a kind of now or never proposition. They wanted to be home for Christmas but they couldn't come home in disgrace..

We believe the Wrights made at least two attempts at flight that day, but possibly only two-- Orville's hop of an estimated 120 feet was made in the morning. At the end of Wilbur's last attempt at flight, the plane was smashed to pieces by the wind. (Witness John Daniels corroborated this event.) This accident dashed any hope to try to fly at Kill Devil Hills again that year.

So the Wrights hiked the four miles to Kitty Hawk  and sent the famous telegram announcing their success with embroidered details.. If they didn't actually meet the criteria of successful powered flight that day, they would announce they did by stating that they took off  "with engine power alone from level ground."

 

. Who would know the difference? Those knowledgeable, Octave Chanute and George Spratt, who had actually been there at the camp at Kill Devil Hills, had left by the middle of November. If they had witnessed the attempts at flight, initiated from the hill, would the Wrights have said Chanute was an old man, losing his memory? Would they have said Spratt had a poor memory, as well? Indeed, they did very nearly that about both of them in regard to other issues.

 Besides, what a feather in their cap. They flew, they said, and Professor Langley with all of his government subsidies had failed in front of many witnesses. (Actually, the Langley plane only failed to launch. There was no money to try again.)

That the 600 plus pound Wright Flyer I with the additional weight of the pilot was even capable of taking off from level ground in 1903 with its 12 hp engine alone has been essentially refuted by any number of experiments. The flyer needed the assistance of the wind and the hill.  Even with today's knowledge and expertise, no one has been able to replicate the claims the Wright brothers made for their flyer at Kill Devil Hills, December 17, 1903. The closest replica was unable to fly 120 feet from level ground, let alone 852 feet.  See Wright flyer replica fails to fly. Also see blog post: Wright "Flyer" Replicas and Reconstructions truthinaviationhistory.blogspot.com 

(On the other hand, Glenn Curtiss indeed flew the reconstructed Langley plane in 1914 from the water at Keuka Lake, NY. The plane was handicapped at the time with 350 pound pontoons, a reduced camber of the wings, and the original engine that they were unable to bring up to full horsepower, yet it completely lifted up out of the suction and drag of the water. There were many highly educated and qualified witnesses who observed these flights.  Moreover, the so called "modifications" of the Langley plane were not "secret," as Orville Wright claimed for years.)

   

* An interesting record about the grounding of the USS Moccasin from the Annual Report of the U. S. Life Saving Service, 1903:

** too much traffic on the line

*** Transcription of statement by C. C. Grant, who was manning the telegraph office, Norfolk, Virginia, December 17, 1903, as follows:

                                                                                         " Norfolk Va., April 11, 1929

            I was bureau telegrapher at he Norfolk weather bureau, located on the top floor of the Citizens Bank of Norfolk, on December 17, 1903.
           Shortly after 11 a. m., a message came through on our wire government owned and controlled, from Kitty Hawk N.C.
            It was addressed to Harry P. Moore and it was signed Dough and Daniels. It stated that the "Wrights made a short flight this morning and will try again this afternoon."
             I delivered the message in person to Mr Moore at his home190 Charlotte street, opposite the Norfolk Academy. It was about 11.40 when I arrived.

                                                                    Very Truly

                                                                    C.C. Grant
For Mr Harry Moore or
any others who may be
Concerned."

This blog post will be continued in Part II of this story in the next blog post of 
truthinaviationhistory.blogspot.com

Please check out glennhcurtiss.blogspot.com for a new post about the Wrights' chief 
competitor and rival.



Scroll down for more posts in Truth in Aviation History!

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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