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.*
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| 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
*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...
