Two Different Timelines: December 17, 1903, the Day the Wright Brothers Claimed They Made the First Powered Flight in History

At Kill Devil Hills, NC: December 17, 1903

Wind speed: 27 mph. Temperature with wind chill: near freezing

Timeline Number One

 The Wright's Story
Of  The Events of December. 17, 1903,
When They Claimed the First Powered, Heavier Than Air, Controlled, 
Sustained, and Powered Flights in History

Note: Timeline number one, as narrated in this blog post, is extracted from the documents and statements of Orville and Wilbur Wright. Together with the photographs depicted in this article, it is the official version of Wright historians.

10:00 am or thereabouts

The Wright brothers wake up on the morning of December 17, 1903, to a cold wind, strong enough to attempt a powered flight from level ground. The rail they need to take off from has been moved from the hill.after their December 14 attempt and set up about 200 feet from their camp.. They failed making a successful flight from the hill on the 14th.

The brothers put up their flag to signal their friends at the Kill Devil Hills Life Saving Station a

mile away. They will need help launching their machine. Three Life Savers show up: John Daniels, Adam Etheridge, and Willie Dough. Two other people passing by stop to help: a youth named Johnnie Moore and a "lumber dealer" named W. C. Brinkley.

They set up their machine on its rail, facing into the wind. The Wright arrange their glass plate camera on a tripod. Luckily, the near gale force wind doesn't shake or blow it over. Estimating the point at which the plane will take off from the rail, they focus the camera on that spot. Life Saver John Daniels is chosen to squeeze the bulb of the shutter, just as the plane passes in front of the camera.

10:35  
After putting gasoline into the tank, Orville climbs onto the lower wing of the plane and lies prone. The engine is started, the plane is released, and starts to run down the track. The engine lifts the plane into the air for 12 seconds and moves it forward an estimated 120 feet. The plane hits the ground, cracks a skid, and breaks a lever..

Later, in a 1908 "Century magazine" article written by Orville Wright, he states that

 The first flight lasted only twelve seconds, a flight very modest compared with 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. 

 http://www.libraries.wright.edu/community/outofthebox/2011/12/17/a-flight-very-modest-compared-with-that-of-birds/

The Wrights step inside their building to warm up before making another launch attempt. They  quickly repair the damage to the plane.

11:20
The group carries the machine back to the beginning of the track. This time Wilbur mounts the plane. In the second  "flight  he is able to stay in the air for 13 seconds and travel 175 feet before he hits the ground. The plane is carried back again and the camera is set up for another picture.

11:40 
Orville climbs on the plane. It is launched and this time remains in the air longer, 15 seconds. The plane travels forward 200 feet. See picture of third claimed "successful flight." (below)

Purported to be a photo of the third successful flight.

The camera is then set up far to the left side of the track and pulled way back so that the next picture can include both the level track and the plane in the distance. The Wrights somehow guess in advance how far the plane will travel in its next flight.

Again, the machine is carried back to the beginning of the track. Wilbur lies prone on the plane this time and the engine is fired up again.

All of this is accomplished in an amazing 20 minutes, and by

12:00 noon
The machine is launched with Wilbur aboard. He manages to keep the plane in the air for 59 seconds and move forward 852 feet over the ground. Wilbur is traveling so low that he strikes a small hummock of sand when he over corrects the plane. The front elevator is damaged. The Wrights themselves calculate that with the wind speed and the speed of the plane, this flight is half a mile.

Claimed photo of Wilbur's last "flight"---852 feet

1. Orville-- estimated 120 feet (100 feet beyond the track)--12 seconds

2. Wilbur--estimated 175 feet--13 seconds
3. Orville--estimated 200 feet--15 seconds
4. Wilbur --measured 852 feet--59 seconds

After the final "flight," the Wrights haul their camera and tripod the more than 852 feet to the site where the last flight ends to take a picture of the plane and its broken elevator. See last photo in this article.

They plan another flight, but the wind picks up the machine, tumbles it over, and  tears it to pieces, despite John Daniels' attempts to save it. He is caught and blown over with the machine, sustaining some injuries

The Wrights eat lunch and wash their dishes.

2:00 pm
The Wright brothers set off on foot to the telegraph office at Kitty Hawk, four miles away to send a telegram of their success to their father, the Bishop Milton Wright. It states:

"Success four flights thursday morning all against twenty one mile wind started from Level with engine power alone average speed through air thirty one miles longest 57 seconds inform Press home Christmas"

The telegrapher Joe Dosher, asks the Wrights if he can spread the news. Despite the fact that the Wrights say absolutely not, the telegrapher(s) release the information to reporter(s) who then submit it to "Norfolk Virginian" newsmen The story appears on the front page of the "Norfolk Virginian" newspaper It is made up of some facts, some fabrications.

 Timeline Number Two

What Happened at Kill Devil Hill, According to Primary

Source Documents,  Witnesses, and Other References

It is highly recommended that the serious researcher carefully read the Saunders interview of witness John Daniels for Colliers magazine 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+

It may be surprising to the uninformed investigator that Wright historians deliberately leave out Daniels' statement in this interview that they pushed the plane up the hill for the "first flight" and back up the hill for the second and again to the hill for a third. but at that juncture, the wind picked up the machine and wrecked it. Daniels also states that he was supporting the wing of the plane up to take off.  Thus, it would have been next to impossible for him to have taken the first flight picture, as Wrightists try to claim. Daniels took credit for the picture later, but said he didn't remember doing so.

Many of the references for this timeline can be retrieved from the previous essays on this blog truthinaviationhistory.blogspot.com. See the various posts titled "Pieces of the Wright Puzzle, What Really Happened..."; "Original Documents: What Really Happened...," and Harry Moore and How the Wrights' Tall Tales Came to Light." Now for the Timeline--the Corrected Version.

 

10:00 AM or so  
The Wrights raise their flag to signal the Life Savers at Kill Devil Hill Life Saving Station a mile away. There is a good wind that morning. They will attempt a powered flight with their 12 horsepower engine attached to their new 1903 machine. They will use the assistance of the wind and the gravity of Kill Devil Hill a quarter of a mile from their camp to launch their aircraft and to help propel it forward. Since the plane weighs over 600 pounds without its pilot they will need at least five men to haul the plane to the base of the hill and move it up the flank of the hill.

Life Savers John Daniels, Adam Etheridge and Willie Dough respond to the signal for help. and walk the  mile from their station to the Wright camp. Two other passers by stop to help: an eighteen year old named Johnny Moore and a farmer named W. C. Brinkley, who is searching for driftwood that morning.

The track is already set up on the hill. It was set up for the December 14 flight attempt.

Witnesses don't mention the Wrights setting up a camera in their statements.

According to witnesses John Daniels and Adam Etheridge, they push the plane up the track on the big hill for the first flight. In his interview for Colliers magazine, John Daniels says that he supports the wing of the plane until it takes off.

The Wrights step aside to consult each other privately, then Orville climbs on the plane. The engine is started; the plane is launched. Wrights claim Orville "flies" for 12 seconds and is propelled forward 120 feet before he hits the ground, cracking the skids and breaking the lever for throwing off the engine.

About 10:40
After the first flight attempt, John Daniels and Willie Dough walk over to the Kill Devil Hills Life Saving Station, a mile away, which would take about fifteen minutes. From here, they telephone Joe Dosher, who mans the telegraph in Kitty Hawk to send a telegram to Henry Moore, their friend and a cub reporter. They have secretly promised Moore, who lives in Norfolk, Virginia, that they will let him know right away if there is a powered flight.

At least one of the Wrights appears to have walked to Kill Devil Hills station to initiate a telegram by phone to the Wrights' sister Katherine. This is likely the telegram that was received by Alpheus Drinkwater in Currituck and relayed on about the first "flight." This telegram, according to Drinkwater, says, "Tell no one." 

There is only one attempted "flight" that morning for the obvious reason that a number of people needed to launch the plane have left the camp.

A little after 11:00  
Charles C. Grant, the telegraph operator in Norfolk, Virgina, receives the telegram from Daniels and Dough, addressed to Harry Moore. Charles Grant personally walks it over to Harry Moore's home in Norfolk.

 In his later affidavit about the event, below,  Grant states that the Life Savers said,
"Wrights made a short flight this morning and will try again this afternoon."  (Full transcript at the end of this blog post.*)


 

Primary source document. Letter signed by telegrapher Charles C. Grant, who received the telegram from Life Savers John Daniels and Willie Dough the morning of Dec. 17, 1903, announcing Orville's attempt at powered flight. Transcript of this document is at the end of this article. *

11:40 
With telegram in hand, Moore phones the Life Savers at the Kill Devil Hills Life Saving Station for details.

"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

Moore's statement indicates that the Life Savers were back at their station, not launching more flights that morning, as the Wrights claim.

After 12 noon
Harry Moore writes up a story  about the "first flight" to submit to the "Norfolk Virginian" newspaper. 

A page from Henry Moore's story about the Dec. 17 "flight" in his own handwriting.

In the afternoon, the Wrights and the Life Savers haul the plane back up the hill and launch another flight, this time with Wilbur on board. The plane stays airborne, according to the Wrights, for 57-59 seconds and travels forward in a straight line for 852 feet. Wilbur hits a small hummock of sand, ending the flight/glide. He breaks the front elevator.

The crew hauls the Flyer back to the hill for another attempt. At this point, an unexpected gust of wind picks up the Flyer and tumbles it over and over. Daniels becomes tangled in the machine trying to save it and sustains some injuries. The plane is so damaged, no more attempts at flight are possible.

1:40 pm 
Reporter Harry Moore delivers his scoop about the Wrights' "flight" to the "Norfolk Virginian" newsroom.

2:00 pm According to the Wrights, they set off for the town of Kitty Hawk where there is a  telegraph office at the Life Saving and weather station. They will send a telegram to their father about their claimed successes at powered flight. Walking the four miles, we have to assume they arrive there about 3:00 pm. By this time Harry Moore has already delivered his story to the "Norfolk Virginian" newspaper. According to the newsmen who were there, the story isn't taken seriously by Keville Glennan, and it's tossed into his waste basket. 

3:00 pm The Wrights are at the Kitty Hawk telegraph office when Harry Moore phones that office for more information. Possibly Harry has heard of another "flight" besides the first one at 10:35. Joe Dosher, the telegraph operator, asks the Wrights if he can relay information to Harry. The Wrights say, absolutely not. 

6:30 pm and after
Newsman Howard Dean comes into the "Norfolk Virginian" newspaper office and reports that he has heard of the first flight attempt through the Norfolk weather bureau office.  The weather bureau office is the only telegraph connection from Kitty Hawk and is the link to the commercial telegraph lines to the outside world. So the news of the telegram received by C. C. Grant to reporter Harry Moore is getting out.

At the urging of C. G. Kizer, who is in charge of the "Norfolk Virginian" news department, Keville Glennan retrieves the story written by Harry Moore from the waste basket under his desk. Working together with Harry Moore that evening, the newsmen compose the feature that is published on the front page of the Norfolk Virginian newspaper on December 18, 1903. The story includes some facts with some fabrications to pad it out. It takes the Wrights by surprise,and they soon release to the newspapers a story that they want to be the official one.


Summary: As is the case in much of the history of the Wright brothers, there are serious discrepancies in their version and the testimony of witnesses. If the version of  events of December 17 narrated by various witnesses and participants is true, the Wrights did not make four controlled, sustained, powered flights the morning of December 17 from level ground. Most testimony backs up only two flights attempted, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Both ended in unintended crashes, causing damage to the plane. They would not be considered sustained or even powered if they were launched from the hill.  Perhaps they would be defined as powered glides.

William Tate, the Wrights' staunch and loyal friend, is quoted as saying the Wrights' flights were from level ground. That is merely hearsay, because Tate didn't witness the flight attempts. There are other statements by Outer Banks people that back up that the flights were from the hill. 

As for the later statements that three of the witnesses pinpointed the spot where the flights were launched, they testified twenty five years later, and history states they had difficulty finding the spot because the landscape was rearranged by wind and weather. The big hill had moved 450 to 500 feet. It's a fact that sand dunes move, and the movement of the dunes on the barrier islands is continual, as the prevailing winds and weather shift the sands. http://www.ncnatural.com/Coast/dynamics.html At Kill Devil Hills, the National Park Service had to stabilize the shifting of the dunes by planting vegetation.

Although Wikipedia is not considered by serious investigators as a reliable reference, here is a link to this group that lists serious storms, such as hurricane and tropical storms that have  affected and sometimes devastated the Outer Banks of North Carolina over the years.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_Carolina_hurricanes_%281900%E2%80%9349%29#1910s


The National Park Service believes and states on its web site that the flights were made from level ground less than one hundred feet from the Wright camp. In their first news release, the Wrights say it was 200 feet.

Regardless, if the flights had been made near the Wright camp from level ground, the approximate spot would have been easy to find and the shifting of the hill would have made little difference in locating the area. It would have been a simple matter of pinpointing the foundation of the camp and assessing the direction of the wind that day. Indeed, William Tate stated they were able to find the foundation of the camp, but on the "Wright Stories" site (a Wright biased web site), we have the following statement. "The task was not easy because the landscape had significantly changed since 1903."                       http://wrightstories.com/finding-the-location-of-the-first-flight-in-1928/

From the First Flight Foundation website: 

Building the [Wright] monument was tasked to the Army Quartermaster Corps.  The first task was to address a moving sand dune.  Big Kill Devil Hill was stabilized with inches of straw, leaf, wood mold, and imported grasses of tannic, hairy vetch, and marram after being fenced to keep wild hogs and cattle out.  This process began in 1929 at a cost of $27,500.  By summer of 1930 the sand dune was a stable hill and construction began February 1931.  Big Kill Devil Hill, 90 foot tall is 450 ft southwest of its location when the Wrights flew gliders from its slopes. http://firstflightfoundation.org/the-monument/
http://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/wrbr/hrs/chapter2.pdf

The iconic picture of the first flight claimed to be taken by John Daniels.The photo is full of anomalies, including the perspective.

Purported to be a photo of the third successful flight.

A distant view of the Wright machine submitted by Wright historians as Wilbur's 852 feet flight in 1903.

A close up of the picture above. This indicates two passengers on the wing and the upright engine to the right of the passengers, as would be the case in the flight of the machine in 1908.

.

The Wrights supposedly carried their camera and tripod in the near freezing wind for 852 feet to the site where the last "flight" ended to record the damage to the elevator.

* Transcript of C.C. Grant's affidavit. Grant was the telegrapher who received the telegram sent by Life Savers John Daniels and Willie Dough addressed to Harry Moore, reporter, the morning of December 17, 1903

Norfolk Va., April 11, 1929

            I was bureau telegrapher at the 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

Harry Moore and How the Wrights' "Tall Tales" Came to Light: Part III

“...he that sows lies in the end shall not lack of a harvest, and soon he may rest from toil indeed, while others reap and sow in his stead.”― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion

 The other side of the headlines 

Norfolk, Virginia, December 18, 1903

Alpheus Drinkwater claimed he forwarded the first telegram announcing the "first flight." He very well may have, but it wasn't the famous one to the Wright's father--it was to their sister.  Harry Moore was the cub reporter who broke the news of Orville's "flight" to the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot.

The first "successful flight" of a powered airplane was blazoned in headlines across the front page of the Virginian-Pilot newspaper the day after the Wrights claimed they were first to fly. The story of how the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot got the news of the Wrights' "flights" has been the subject of speculation for years.

 The "official" version is what the Wrights guessed, because they apparently never knew the whole truth. They figured that when they telegraphed the news to their father from Kitty Hawk to Norfolk, Virginia, about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the telegraph operator(s) must have spilled the story to the press, despite the Wrights' direct request to keep the matter quiet.1

From our research, as evidenced here, it's much more likely that the reporter was protecting his sources and the sources were protecting each other. Please see the two preceding blog posts.

In Wilbur and Orville by Fred Howard, we are given two possible variations of  the Wrights' version. The first scenario is that the telegrapher in Norfolk, Virginia (he names as Gray) shared the news with aspiring reporter Harry P. Moore, who then called long distance to pin down facts. Howard admits that there were a number of actual facts in the article other than those in the telegram. How they were obtained, he's not certain.2

In a second possible version that Fred Howard says was accepted later, the news was revealed, not to Moore, but to Ed Dean, who covered the Weather Bureau for the "Virginian-Pilot." Harry Moore didn't even arrive at the paper, he says, until that evening; and Dean and Keville Glennan, the city editor, had already written the story and were ready to set it into type. According to Howard, it was then that Moore asked them if they knew about the flights. "Moore was not even a reporter at the time....and it was never clear how he managed to hear of the flights." 3

In The Bishop's Boys, Tom Crouch gives credit to Ed Dean, who he says "was a friend of Jim Gray, the Norfolk operator Joe Dosher had asked to relay the Wrights' message on to Western Union. [Dosher was the operator at Kitty Hawk.] Gray told Dean about the telegram despite his instructions [to keep quiet]. Dean in turn approached his city editor, Keville Glennan, who agreed that the story was too good to pass up. The two men spent the next few hours fleshing out the sparse and enigmatic details of the telegram. Harry Moore, who worked in the Virginian-Pilot circulation department, also took a hand in composing the news account. "4

Crouch continues,"The finished story shows how heavily the three men drew on their imagination to fill in the gaps."5  (As we are seeing, it's apparent that historians similarly invent "facts" to fill in the blanks.--ed.)

But the "official" time line just doesn't fit the statements of the key players in the news story. When we try to correlate all of the stories together with the Wrights' claims, we end up with what author Stephen Kirk in First in Flight calls a "confused mess" 6

 Here is Kirk's version of what happened.

"Charles C. Grant was on duty at the Weather Bureau office in Norfolk on December 17, sitting in for the regular man, Jim J. Gray. [As noted, more than one history has Gray manning the telegraph lines, apparently in error] Grant claimed that the first message about the flights came in at eleven in the morning..., and that it was from livesavers Willie Dough and John Daniels, not the Wright brothers. It supposedly read, 'Wrights made a short flight this morning and will try again this afternoon.'"7

From his statement above, it is obvious that author Kirk was aware of Charles C. Grant's affidavit, posted in this blog. But he rejects it as follows:

    "This...appears doubtful. The first flight took place just after ten-thirty, and it is unlikely that Dough and Daniels could have conveyed the message to Kitty Hawk by eleven o'clock. Besides their help was needed in carrying the Flyer back from where it landed....aside from Grant's claim, it has never been suggested that Daniels or Dough left the Wright camp and returned between the first and fourth flights."8

In our opinion, author Kirk's errors in interpreting the Grant affidavit are the same errors that continually plague Wright historians in most of their material I have reviewed. They accept as gospel the Wright stories when there is no authentic documentation other than the Wrights' own claims. The Wrights claimed that four flights were made in the morning of December and stuck to that story. Using that story as a basic premise, Kirk has to reject Grant's statement. There are other statements he has to reject, as well.

But another author, Thomas Parramore, does suggest that Life Savers left the camp to relay the story:

"Just how the Pilot obtained its story is often debated. But after the second flight at 11:05 A.M., it appears that Adam Etheridge and John T. Daniels rode briefly over to the lifesaving station. There they wired Harry P. Moore, a Virginian-Pilot reporter to whom they had promised to send word of any powered flights: 'Wrights flew in motor-driven plane 11:20.'  (They may have considered the first flight a failure. ) Norfolk telegrapher C. C. Grant relayed the message to Moore..." 9

After Dosher telegraphed the Wrights' famous telegram about 3:00 P. M., Parramore says, "Grant again informed Moore, who then apparently phoned the Kill Devil Hill Life Saving Station. ..

At a Kitty Hawk meeting with Moore in 1928, Orville Wright confirmed that 'when you called the coast guard station...about our flights, the station man turned to me and asked me whether they should tell you....I told them to tell you nothing, but in their enthusiasm they did give out the story and made it a bit stronger than it was...'." 10

Parramore's narration deserves quite a bit of analysis. There are facts that appear incorrect, but at least he sees that there had to be a message sent to Moore in the morning--and about the only way that could have happened is for the Life Savers to leave the camp and phone from the Kill Devil Hills Station. He has them on horseback, not walking. Also, from this account, it's my opinion again that Moore phoned at least once in the morning after the first "flight" and again in the afternoon for more information. The first call was made to the Kill Devil Hills Life Saving Station as soon as he got the telegram from Dough and Daniels about the first flight attempt. The second was to the Kitty Hawk Station in the afternoon while the Wrights were still there after sending their telegram to their father, the Bishop. There was probably a third to Kill Devil Hills to talk to the original witnesses about the 852 foot "flight."

When it came time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the "first flight," according to Kirk,  Harry Moore wrote a couple of articles for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot about how it was he who had "scooped the story." Keville Glennan, who had been city editor, objected to Moore's story, stating in a letter to the editor that "...I would like to inform you that the credit for the magnificent "beat" which the Virginian-Pilot scored on that occasion does not belong to any individual man..."  He said that Edward Dean, who had received the news of the flights from the local Weather bureau office, was the first to report the story to the city desk. "And that's the finish line in news races." 11 

After a subsequent exchange of letters with Glennan, Moore collected the statements published here in this blog to back his story up. They were written by Grant, the telegraph operator in Norfolk at the time (not Jim Gray), and by the newsmen who were there at the paper December 17, 1903, when Moore came in with his story before 2 pm. Dean hadn't picked up on the story until early evening and the Wrights hadn't even sent their famous telegram yet..See preceding blog post for two more of these documents.

Two of these letters follow:

                                                                                               Norfolk, Va. Feb. 3 1929
To Whom It May Concern


    I was a member of the Virginian-Pilot news staff on December 17, 1903
and am well acquainted with Harry  P. Moore, Keville Glennan and Edward O. Dean.

     I was in conference with Mr. Moore, Mr. Glennan, Mr. Kizer and Mr James
A. Pugh, the latter being city editor, when Moore brought in a message from
x, two life savers at Kitty Hawk telling about Orville Wright making the first
flight in a glider equipped with a motor.
     It was 1.40 p.m. and Glennan advised all present not to discuss the story
until after the public Ledger had gone to press. He said he believed the "yarn was
just another glider" flight and did not think it would develop into anything big.
     About 6:30 p.m. the story came up again when Dean said he had heard
J. Frank Newsome, weather bureau observer, mentioned the telegram received
by Moore early in the day which came over the Government owned seacoast wire
which had its commercial outlet in the weather bureau.

     No other newspaper man got any information about the flight except Moore
up to the time Dean visited the weather bureau.

                                                                                Very truly

                                                                                 Frank S. Wing
Dear Harry
          Use this anyway you like and if you want me to write my opinion of
Glennan and his atte,pt [attempt] to take the credit for this story from you, let me know and
I will write you a hummer
                                          FSW

(Italics and emphasis added by editor of  truthinaviationhistory)

                                            

 El Centro Printing Co.                                         670 Main Street
                                                                              El Centro California
                                
                                                                              October 28, 1950
Harry P. Moore, Esq.
P. O.Box 182
Norfolk, Virginia

Dear Harry:

It is good to have your letter of October 25th and to know
from your own typewriter that you continue
newspaper work.

I feel that it is not only unfair but untrue for anybody
to attempt to dispute the record of your right to first
credit for the story of the Wright Brothers' initial
flight in their biplane at Kill Devil Hill (Kitty Hawk)
North Carolina in 1903.

I was a working newspaper man in Norfolk from 1910 to
June 1917, during the last five years of that period
I was managing editor of the Virginian-Pilot. Nobody (far as I know)
in Norfolk ,while I lived there, challenged the validity
of your then established position as the man who got the
Wright story first, and on the morning of December 17, 1903. 

Keville Glennan was a feature writer, and for a time was
Sunday editor of the Virginian-Pilot during my tenure as managing
editor. While I knew Keville, I never heard him claim for
himself or for anybody except you the credit for being first
to get the Wright story.

As you know, I was born (1887) and spent my boyhood within 50 miles of
the spot where the Wrights made aviation history at Kill Devil Hill.
My father had a cottage at Nags Head, a few miles south of the
site of the Wright memorial monument, and I spent every summer
at Nag's Head from the first year of my life until I was 17 years old.

I refer to this background now to indicate my familiarity with
the scene. There was only one telegraph line from the coastal
region along the "banks"  between Kill Devil and the outside world,
with Norfolk weather bureau its link to commercial wire lines.
This one outlet at the Norfolk weather bureau was manned in my
years in Norfolk by personnel so loyal in friendship to you that
I always called on you for any news story originating along the
"banks" between Cape Henry and Cape Hatteras. And I know this loyalty
to you had existed for many years.

Write to me when you can find time and tell me more about yourself.
I wish you would tell Joe Pacini's boys to send me a small kit of
corned spots, express collect, and mail me a bill for the fish.
                                                  Sincerely,
                                                  T. H. Lamb

(Italics and emphasis added)

 So to review:

The story behind the story all started when a  perspicacious young reporter by the name of Harry Moore  happened to overhear some Life Savers from Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, chatting nearby at a shop in Norfolk, Virginia. He made friends with the Life Savers, and they promised to let him know if the Wrights were successful in making a manned, powered flight.

That friendship resulted in Harry Moore nailing the "Scoop of the Century."

Many decades later, Harry Moore's daughter just happened to come across an advertisement that was posted by Steve Fritts, who was looking  for an original copy of the now very famous newspaper, the Virginian-Pilot dated December 18, 1903, to add to his collection. It was the first front page newspaper story of the first so called powered and manned flight ever made.

Moore's daughter answered the ad. She didn't have the particular newspaper, which is a rarity for sure, but she produced some primary documents for Steve she had preserved for decades that were justifiably of even more importance, such importance that when the Smithsonian heard of them, they expressed a keen interest. The documents Moore's daughter had saved when studied very carefully are in conflict with the tales that the Wrights broadcast to the world about their first "flights" at Kill Devil Hills December 17, 1903, and the tales that have been picked up and told time and again in countless reams of books and publications.What the Smithsonian would have done with these documents, we'll never know. Maybe they would have tucked them away somewhere in a deep, deep vault far into its enormous, infinite caverns. Eventually no one but a musty old file somewhere would know they were there. But the collector Steve Fritts believed they needed to be shared with the world. At the moment of this publication, they still rest securely in his safety deposit box.

Not so long ago, some of this important information came to light in an article that I happened to read in my excursions through the internet, looking for information on the Wrights' flights. I was finding too many discrepancies about their flight claims to ignore. It was then that I came upon C. G. Grant's documented statement. "Wrights made a short flight this morning and will try again this afternoon." Steve Fritts had shared this story with the world.
__________________

1. Fred C. Kelly. The Wright Brothers (New York, NY: Dover Publications, 1989), 102-5.

 2. Fred Howard. Wilbur and Orville (New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1987), 142-3.

 3. Ibid., 143.

4. Tom Crouch. The Bishop's Boys (New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1989), 271.

 5. Ibid.

 6. Stephen Kirk. First in Flight: The Wright Brothers in North Carolina (Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair Publisher, 1995), 186. 

 7.  Ibid., 186-7.

 8. Ibid., 187.

 9. Thomas Parramore. First to Fly: North Carolina and the Beginnings of Aviation (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002), 97-8.

10. Ibid., 98.

11. Kirk, First in Flight, 295-6.

Original Documents: What Really Happened, Part II. How the Wrights' Tall Tales Came to Light

 How the Wrights' Tall Tales Came to Light.

"Falsity is so easy, truth so difficult."--George Eliot
in "Adam Bede"

Headlines of the Virginian Pilot article printed on December 18, 1903. The story was "scooped" by 19 year old reporter Harry Moore

Reporter Harry Moore in his later years and a photo of him as young  man.

This blog is dedicated to finding the truth about what really happened in aviation history, as far as is possible. Rather than relying on the words of the Wright brothers, we have taken a new approach by exploring other documents and witness statements. We feel that it's important that all the great aviation explorers receive their proper places in history and that we expose false claims of biased individuals, or those who would benefit from publishing misinformation.

The previous post establishes how documents we are posting came into the hands of Steve Fritts, an aviation enthusiast and collector of historical newspapers. This post will show how the documents relate to the Wrights erroneous statements about what happened the day they claimed they made the first four "flights" in history. We will also begin to tell the story of how the documents came to be written in the first place.

 The Wrights began experimenting with gliders with the intention of making powered flights from 1900 through 1903. Their idea wasn't at all new. Aviation pioneers such as Lilienthal, Herring, and Montgomery, had intended to attach engines to their gliders and achieve powered flights. In fact, Herring did and flew about 73 feet. Gustave Whitehead was witnessed and reported making powered flights at least two years before the Wrights in 1901.

Photograph of a Wright glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, by Octave Chanute.

 The Wrights established a camp at Kill Devil Hills a few miles from Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.where the wind could lift their gliders, gravity could help pull them forward, and the sand could cushion their falls.

The Outer Banks was sparsely populated. Much as in any small town, it didn't take long before the news got around about these "crazy" guys who were trying to fly. One day in 1903, a young reporter by the name of Harry Moore happened to overhear some Life Savers talking about the Wrights in Norfolk, Virginia.They had gone there to to buy a barrel of oysters for the pair. Moore's interest was piqued.  He had a nose for news.  He befriended the Life Savers, who seemed to know all about the Wrights' experiments, and made them promise to let him know right away if the Wrights managed to make a powered flight.
                    
We know from the Wright letters that, according to their calculations, they were concerned whether they had enough thrust to fly with their little 12 horsepower engine. With changes, the machine kept getting heavier.

Their friend Octave Chanute, who was an engineer and an expert in aviation, visited them at Kill Devil Hills that fall. Before he left, he told them that their engine wasn't powerful enough to lift their plane because it would lose too much energy from the chain drag to the propellers. The Wrights averred they did an experiment and proved him wrong.

The Wright Flyer on its track on the big Kill Devil Hill, 1903.  Here the Wrights used the assistance of gravity to take off because their 12 hp engine wasn't strong enough. Note that the "Flyer " had no wheels, which was an advantage in the sand, but wheels weren't added for years because the Wrights later had to rely on a catapult to take off.

They attached their 12 horsepower engine to their "Wright Flyer I" in preparation for what they thought would be the first powered, manned, heavier than air flight in history. On December 14 1903, we are told that they tried and failed in their first attempt to make a powered flight, launching from the track on the hill.

But on December 17 at 10:35 a.m., we are told by Wright historians that Orville succeeded in making a 12 second hop of 120 feet  "from level ground." The wind was recorded at 27 mph.Wright historians call Orville's hop the first manned powered controlled heavier than air flight in history. Was it a flight or a glide?

 What happened immediately before and after Orville's claimed flight is now open to question. There are at least two different stories, the one told by the Wright brothers and the one that is revealed.from the primary source documents that reporter Harry Moore's daughter preserved for years.

The Wrights say they made three more flights that morning from 10:35 until noon. Their story can be read in a telegram they sent their father the Bishop that afternoon. They claim it was sent after the last flight by Wilbur and that it is the only telegram that was sent. Later, they sent out a news release that was supposed to back up what the telegram said.

  

 Success four flights thursday morning all against twenty one mile wind started from Level with engine power alone average speed through air thirty one miles longest 57 seconds inform Press home Christmas

These words have been accepted as gospel for over a hundred years

But it's important that we reexamine the statements of the Wrights in this telegram, because it establishes whether they were truthful or not right from the beginning. We need to prove the veracity of their claims, because their stories then and later had to be based on their honesty or lack of it. These are valid questions. The Wrights were very secretive about what they did from 1903 until 1908--five long years. Much of all we really have is their words about what happened. Moreover they made long testimonies in court under oath in their large numbers of lawsuits that claimed infringement of their patents and primacy in flight.

Unfortunately for the Wrights' tales and their historians claims, our primary source documents and witness statements do not support the Wrights' statements about what happened that day--before, during, and after Orville's hop of 120 feet at 10:35 am. On the Wrights' side, we only have their claims in their own words and some photographs with questionable anomalies they claimed documented their flights. What's more, Wright historians won't accept the statements of the actual eye witnesses, because the witnesses say that all of the flight attempts were made from the hill, not level ground.
           

What we believe happened immediately before and after the 10:35 claim, our primary source documents and witness statements can establish as follows:.

The Life Savers were true to their word to Harry Moore--to let him know right away if there was a powered flight. Directly after Orville's 10:35 powered "hop" on the day of December 17, the Life Savers, Willie Dough and John Daniels walked the quarter of a mile to the Kill Devil Hills Life Saving station, where there was a telephone. From there they contacted Joe Dosher, the telegraph operator at Kitty Hawk to send a telegram to Moore, who was in Norfolk, Virginia.

There was a telephone at the Kill Devil Hills Life Saving Station, above. Two Life Savers hiked the quarter of a mile to this station right after Orville's "flight" and telephoned Joe Dosher who had a telegraph at the Kitty Hawk Station. Dosher telegraphed a message to reporter Harry Moore that Orville Wright had flown.

The telegram was received in Norfolk a little after 11:00 am by the telegraph operator named C. C. Grant, who was manning the line for the usual operator. Grant walked the telegram over to the home of Harry Moore and hand delivered it to him by about 11:40.  

Below is a copy of a letter written and signed by Grant, the telegraph operator in Norfolk, Virginia, who received the wire addressed to Harry Moore. It is an affidavit--a primary source document signed personally by the writer. This valuable document confirms what happened the morning of December 17, 1903, in at least two points. First of all, it proves that more than one telegram was sent that day--and this one was sent in the morning. To phone the telegram in, the Life Savers had to leave the camp--and the Wrights needed the help of all the Life Savers there to launch their "flyer." Therefore, the Wrights could hardly have made four flights that morning. Confirming this, C. C. Grant states right in the letter that the Life Savers said, "the Wrights made a short flight this morning and will try again this afternoon."

This valuable document resides right now in a safety deposit box, together with others that back up Moore's story.It essentially proves that the Wrights did not make four flights the morning of  December 17, '03, as they claimed in a telegram to their Bishop father. Permission to use this document was granted to truthinaviationhistory by its owner Steve Fritts.

  Norfolk Va., April 11, 1929

            I was bureau telegrapher at the 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

After reporter Harry Moore received the telegram from the Life Savers about 11:40 am, he immediately called up the Life Savers on the phone. The Life Savers were there at their Kill Devil Hills station, (not helping the Wrights launch three more flights).

To quote Moore:

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 *

Moore contacted the Norfolk Virginian Pilot newspaper with this big story. According to a "Virginia Living" article, "After collecting what facts he could from Norfolk by telephone, Moore rushed to the Pilot news room and gave the Kitty Hawk news to editorial personnel Keville Glennan, Frank S. Wing, and C. G. Kizer, the last head of the news department." The reaction was mixed. According to a later letter from Kizer recounting the newsroom’s reaction, Glennan, the city editor, thought it was “just another glider flight” and tossed Moore’s story into the wastebasket. But other newsmen backed up Moore. And meanwhile, more news was coming from other telegraph reports being sent. (Wright historians claim that only one wire was sent, the one from the Wrights to their father the Bishop at the end of the day. But even another telegram was apparently sent that morning by the Wrights to their sister Katherine. It was forwarded by Alpheus Drinkwater.)
.
Eventually the paper decided to print the story (headline at the start of this blog)  It was Harry
Moore's "big story," but as time went on, other newsmen, including Keville Glennan, decided that the story was so important, they wanted to take credit for it. It is this controversy about who was responsible for the newspaper account that prompted C. C. Grant, telegrapher, and others to write letters to set the story straight. If that hadn't happened, we wouldn't have these documents, and we might never have known what really happened the morning of December 17, 1903.

Below is a letter we have by editor Kizer. This story backs up Harry Moore's claim but also helps to back up the letter by telegrapher C. C. Grant. It was Henry Moore's intuition and his scoop that made the front page of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot in one of the most famous news stories of the era.**

Letter written by newsman C. G. Kizer, to back up reporter Harry Moore's story. Permission to publish this document was granted to truthinaviationhistory by owner Steve Fritts.

-

* For a timeline and a more complete story, please see blog post "{Pieces of the Wright Puzzle. What Really Happened December 17, 1903)  (http://truthinaviationhistory.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2015-01-28T18:23:00-08:00&max-results=5)

**Transcript of Kizer's letter:
Norfolk    Lynchburg VA. Mar11 1929
Mr. Harry P. Moore'Virginian-Pilot
Norfolk, Va.

Dear Harry-
                Here I am in Lynchburg, wife's home town. I'm killing two birds with one stone, conducting a hearing of a labor dispute and paying my respects to the Wabes--my wife's folks-
at the same time.
             I wanted to write to you from Richmond to thank you for your letter to Byrd in my behalf. He told me about it and was much impressed with the things you told him. I hope I can live up to the nice things you said about me.
                It was largely through friendship, such as yours, that I made the grade and received another appointment.
                Don't you let anything Glennan has to say worry you in the least. You know him of old. He waits 25 years to claim credit for himself and Dean for the hard and excellent work you did [on] the Wright flight story.
                You know I was in charge of the news department at the time and I discussed with Foote the city editor and Glennan at two 'o clock in the afternoon your story on Wrights first flight  on December 17, 1903.***
                 At the time Glennan said he thought the story was just another glider flight. I told him to keep in touch with you and if you felt it was true it was good enough for me.
                 It was largely at my urging that he pulled the story out of the waste basket, under his desk, at night, touched it up to suit his own whim and sent it back to the composing room. I told him to put it on the front page.
                 Of all the mean tricks he has pulled, this is one of his meanest.   Mr. Grandy had little faith in him and he told me if I could not keep him in line to get rid of him.
                  Again, thanking you for all your efforts in my behalf I am,
                                   Sincerely your friend
                                        C. S. Kizer

*** The Wright brothers didn't walk the four miles to Kitty Hawk, so they claimed, to send the famous telegram to their father until 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Obviously, according to Kizer, Moore had already written and submitted his story to the Virginian-Pilot by then.
       This corroborates that the Virginian Pilot didn't get their story from the telegraphers leaking the news from the telegram the Wrights sent their father after 2:00 p.m. This is what the Wrights and their historians claim, but the truth is, the Life Savers, the telegraphers, and Harry Moore never told the Wrights the real story in order to protect each other and their sources.

 To be continued.
       

Original Documents. What Really Happened at Kill Devil Hills December 17, 1903

Harry Moore, reporter, who "scooped" the December 17, 1903, Wright story when he was nineteen years old.

Readers, I am publishing some original primary documents on this blog in order to get the information out to the public right now

I will continue with the story of the Wright Flyer wings shortly.

David McCullough, a reputable historian, has just published a book called The Wright Brothers. He has admitted that he knew nothing about the subject matter when he started, and that he relied on Tom Crouch, Senior Curator of the National Air and Space Museum, for his research.

Tom Crouch has a highly biased agenda. He is a publicized defender of the contract that the Smithsonian signed with the Wright family whereby the Smithsonian must support that the Wright brothers were the first to fly -- or they may lose the "Wright Flyer" on display there to the Wright family.  

The documents I am publishing over a short time period will open to question many of the published statements of the Wright brothers about the events of December 17, 1903, when they claimed they were the first to make a manned, powered, controlled, sustained flight from level ground with their engine power alone.

For an explanation of the provenance of these documents,  I am first publishing in full, the statement that owner, Steve Fritts, made to me and in following posts, the documents he shared with me. Steve is  a collector of old documents, and was given these papers by the daughter of Harry Moore, the reporter, who "scooped" the Wright story on December 17, 1903. Documents will be published here that support Harry Moore's statements. 

Note that Tom Crouch knows of the existence of these documents, but has not made their contents available to the public or, apparently, to such historians as David McCullough.

 I might add and I will repeat that Harry Moore and the Life Savers didn't know that a flight made from a hill can not be considered a  powered, sustained flight

On 1/12/2015 7:27 AM, Steve Fritts wrote to  me:

Marcia,

Here is the story of how I obtained the first flight story.  I am not related to Harrry P. Moore and only know them through my research and curiosity into how the Virginian-Pilot newspaper got the story.

I live in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia.

The handwritten rough draft of the story of the Wright Brothers' first flight was published in the Virginian-Pilot newspaper December 18 1903 and was written by Harry P. Moore, who was a young cub reporter  trying to break in full time with the Virginian-Pilot newspaper.  He had been keeping up with the Wright Brothers’ glider experiments in 1903 and made friends with coastguardsmen Dough and Daniels, who promised him they would tell him he would be the first person to know if a successful flight was made. 

No other reporter knew about the flight until he received word the morning of December 17 from Dough and Daniels through Norfolk telegraph operator C.C. Grant.   

Moore was also a freelance correspondent for several out-of town newspapers and sent his story of the first heavier than air flight.  Some published it the next day, some two days later, and others did not believe it and so did not publish the story at all. 

The first few lead paragraphs of the story were written by editor and writer Keville Glennan they are not included in the handwritten story.

I obtained the first flight story in 1989 from Eleanor Harnly, the daughter of Harry P. Moore, who was the cub reporter who wrote the story.

As a collector of historical newspapers and also an employee of the FAA, I was working on an airport project at Elizabeth City, NC which is about an hour from Norfolk.  I placed a want ad in the Virginian-Pilot newspaper asking if anyone had a copy of the original Wright Brothers newspaper to sell (there are none in existence as far as I know).

Ms. Harnly just happened to be looking at the want ads that day and saw my tiny little ad in the Norfolk Virginian-PIlot newspaper.  She called me and invited me to her home.  She could not find the old newspaper that she thought she had, but instead gave me all of the memorabilia of the first flight, including a letter from Orville Wright, letters from the newsmen who were there when they were debating whether or not to publish the story, a letter from C.C. Grant, the Norfolk telegraph operator who passed the news from Kitty Hawk to Harry P. Moore, and the handwritten first flight story itself.  I have photos of me and my wife when we met her and her husband.

Tom Crouch at the Smithsonian was very interested in all of this and found it "fascinating." when I sent copies of it to him years ago.  This is the story that Henry Ford wanted to purchase for his collection (he offered $1200.00 back in 1930).

Steve Fritts / Dunwoody, Georgia 

For more about this story, please see "The Big Story":  http://www.virginialiving.com/virginiana/history/the-big-story/#next

To be continued... 

Mystery of the Wright Flyer Wings Part II

""Inconsistencies,' answered Imlac, 'cannot both be right, but imputed to man they may both be true.'"--Rasselus

"...I have found that silent truth cannot withstand error aided by continued propaganda."--Orville Wright: "Why the 1903 Wright Airplane Is Sent to a British Museum"

Glenn Curtiss flying in the AEA "June Bug" July 4, 1908, at Hammondsport, New York

1908 was the year that man's ability to fly exploded into the world's consciousness--like fireworks; and it was on the 4th of July that our own Glenn Hammond Curtiss made the first pre-announced public flight in the United States.  Glenn's amazing demonstration was in front of officials and a large crowd and convinced many, I'm told, that he was the very first to fly. Although most Americans now believe that manned, powered flight had been achieved four and a half years before on December 17, 1903, the year the Wright brothers claimed they flew from level ground in North Carolina, their claim is in dispute because of later statements by the eye witnesses and others. Evidence keeps mounting, as emphasized before in this blog, that instead of taking off from level ground with their engine power alone, the Wrights had used the gravity of Kill Devil Hill to launch against a strong headwind. This is what a glider does, and their plane essentially was a glider--under- powered with a 12 horsepower engine that was driving two propellers. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) would never have certified this as a viable, heavier than air, manned, powered flight. Please see "Is It a Flight or Isn't It?" Click here and scroll down.

It would be accurate to say that the ability to make a manned, heavier than air, powered flight was demonstrated before a large public in the year 1906 by Brazilian Alberto Santos Dumont, who had official witnesses in France--and that the real surge in powered flying took off in the following years. European pioneers, such as Farman, and Delagrange were flying in planes designed by the Voisons in 1907. Bleriot was experimenting with various designs, such as tandem wings, and by 1909, his tractor monoplane that flew across the English Channel looked much like many of our planes today. In May of 1908 the Wright Brothers were spotted off the ground by reporters at Kill Devil Hills and photographed at a distance. The 1905 plane that we are told they used at Kill Devil Hills that May was soon crashed and destroyed there by Wilbur.

 None of the witnesses who say they saw the Wrights in the air before 1908 were qualified to judge if they were seeing viable flights except, perhaps, Octave Chanute in 1904. But what Chanute saw in 1904 was the Flyer II catapulted into the air where it managed to stay for only 24 seconds before it crashed--out of control. See his statement. As in the case of their 1903 attempts, the FAI would/could not have certified this as a viable powered flight, either. The Wrights also claimed their witnesses later observed them flying 24 miles in 1905, but the length of that flight is unofficial and unproven.

No secrecy here. Glenn Curtiss (foreground, sixth from right, white shirt, tie, and hat), the June Bug, and some of the many observers of the first preannounced public flight in America, July, 1908.  Photo from the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum.

 Glenn Curtiss's July 4 demonstration won the Scientific American prize for making a controlled flight of over a kilometer. His plane was called the "June Bug" by Alexander Graham Bell, who had mentored the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA), of which Curtiss was a member. Their avowed purpose was to get off the ground and flying--and they succeeded in a matter of months. This is because the information needed by them was made available to all by pioneer researchers, such as Samuel Langley, who had gone before. Please see various posts in this blog, e. g., "The Wrights Discovered What"? It was there for the taking to those who did their investigations, and the AEA did just that. Despite what the Wrights said, who jealously guarded what they called their "secret of flight," the AEA didn't/couldn't have stolen from them their information. How could they have stolen their use of the aileron when the Wrights didn't even think of it or specifically describe it in their 1906 patent, let alone invent it?* The AEA planes' conformation was basically patterned after Chanute's biplane gliders, as was the Wrights,' and the AEA 40 hp V8 engine was Glenn Curtiss's own--light in weight and amply powered.

The Wrights didn't formally debut in public until August, 1908. In fact, the Wrights would not have been able to compete for the prize Curtiss won, because one of the requirements was to take off from level ground with wheels and engine power alone. The Wrights plane took off with skids, not wheels, using their catapult. Wright proponents like to say that they could have used wheels, they just didn't want to! Strangely, with so many already flying in Europe by 1908, the Wrights claimed they "taught the world to fly." Please see "The Wright Brothers 'Hijacked History' " (Click here and scroll down.)

1908 was the year the Wrights at last flew in public, Wilbur in France in August and Orville at Fort Meyer, Virginia, in September. Both broke records.** But Orville soon crashed at Fort Meyer, killing a passenger, Lieutenant Selfridge, one of the AEA members who had helped them research their way into the air. Orville sustained injuries that haunted him the rest of his life. Both Wrights had used catapults to get off the ground in 1908--except in May at Kill Devil Hills, we assume, where they had plenty of hills and a headwind to assist them at take off. But it's documented in their 1908 letters to each other that they both were having multiple problems with their engines before their debuts; and that observation raises the tantalizing question, were their own early engines dependable and powerful enough to get them off the ground and to stay reliably in the air? All indications are that they were not.See Library of Congress  (LOC) letters. But that is a different blog post.

At issue now is whether the original artifacts, the 1903 "Flyer I" they claimed was the first to fly, and the 1905 "Flyer" III they say they used at Kill Devil Hills in 1908 were really preserved and reconstructed for the public to see, and if those are on display now, as they're advertised to be.

We are told that the pieces of the plane, smashed by the wind in 1903, were shipped back to Dayton, Ohio, and stored there, until Orville unpacked them and put them together in 1916. That tale is absolutely not backed by witnesses, except for Mabel Beck, who was Orville Wright's loyal secretary and who faithfully supported him in everything he said. (But wait. Charlie Taylor, the Wrights' mechanic stated that he helped unpack the old plane in 1916 and put it together. A statement by eyewitness John Daniels for Colliers magazine seems nearer the complete truth. Eyewitness Daniels stated that they crated up the plane in 1903 and shipped it back--except for pieces that were given as souvenirs. So despite Beck and Taylor, we have strong support for Etheridge's statement that he received the wings and more as he said. (See blog, "More Mystery..," ) This "Flyer" is now supposed to be on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space  Museum. The crashed 1905/8 "Flyer," used by both Orville and Wilbur at Kill Devil Hills in 1908 is the plane claimed to be reconstructed and at Carillon Park in Dayton, Ohio. But it can't be.

Due to the wonders of the internet, evidence has been found that the claims.based on Orville Wright's statements, that these are the original planes, can not be supported. So what really happened to the early Wright "Flyers" must be stitched together from statements of witnesses and other original/primary documents.. See the  previous post, "Mystery of the Wright Flyer Wings, Part I."

Adam Dough Etheridge, eye witness in 1903. His statements are discredited by Wright  historians because they contradict the Wright brothers' stories.

 .

According to eye witness Adam Etheridge, the wings of the 1903 plane and more weren't shipped to Dayton, Ohio, by the Wrights when they departed Kitty Hawk. Instead, they gave him the wings of that broken  plane and probably/possibly most of what was left of the plane itself, (except for the engine and hardware). Maybe they didn't went to pay the freight. He took the parts to his home on the beach and stored them there. Subsequently, Wilbur informed a man "from Philadelphia" that Etheridge had the old plane, and the man contacted him about buying it. There is absolutely no reason to doubt Etheridge's story except for the fact that it contradicts Orville Wright's.

(Interesting that in order to support the Wright stories, Wright historians discredit the witnesses of other aviation pioneers, such as the many who observed the flights of Gustave Whitehead, but need to discredit their own key witnesses. as well.)

Etheridge took up the man's offer, sold the old plane for 25.00, and shipped it to Elizabeth City, from where it could be shipped on to his customer. Much later, Etheridge regretted that decision, because he realized, he said, that he might have made a fortune.***

The story of the 1903 Wright Flyer wings continues with letters that were made public after the death of Orville Wright and are now digitized on the LOC Wright brothers site. Reading these letters and researching the net, we find that the man who purchased the plane was a gentleman named Zenas Crane, who had made a fortune manufacturing paper. Crane had started a museum in Pittsfield, Massachusets, called the Berkshire Museum, and hoped to rebuild the plane for display there. The available letters fully back up Etheridge's statement except for one thing. Which plane he sold to Crane.

The Berkshire Museum today. The founder, Zenas Crane, purchased a Wright "Flyer."

After his purchase, we discover from the letters that Zenas Crane began a correspondence with Orville Wright to enlist his help. He wanted to reconstruct the plane accurately, and he also needed parts that were missing. We don't have these first letters. His son in law, Samuel Colt, continued the correspondence in 1914. At this point we can begin our study of the tale with the digitized primary documents of the letters that were exchanged. Because the first correspondence is obviously missing, we have to read between the lines and logically surmise some eliminated truth of the matter. As we believe and have reiterated, we can't and don't rely on Orville or even Wilbur as the primary references to be trusted. Their statements always need to be backed by supporting references.

We discover that Crane and his son in law, Samuel Colt, believe that the museum has in its possession the 1905 Flyer that Wilbur crashed in 1908, not the 1903 "Flyer" that Etheridge says he sold to him. We have to guess why and when Crane was told that and by whom--by Wilbur or by Orville after Wilbur's death? By claiming The Berkshire Museum had bought the 1905 "Flyer" and that he had the original 1903 "Flyer" I they had shipped to Dayton, Orville could use that tale to his great advantage.****

Obviously, the sale of the plane to Crane by Etheridge would have had to be made after 1908 for Crane to believe he had the 1905/8 plane. But there is another way we might pinpoint the date of the sale even more closely.

From the letters, we find that Crane also bought a glider for 25.00. Note in subsequent letters that Samuel Colt indicates he doesn't know which glider it is, but he believes it's the one Orville flew at Kill Devil Hills in 1911. Since Wilbur arranged the sale and died in 1912, we may fairly,safely conclude that Etheridge sold the 1903 plane he was given about the same time Crane bought the glider--between 1911 and 1912. The glider Crane bought that year was likely not the 1902 glider that was left at the camp at Kill Devil Hills. See post "More Mystery of the Wright Flyer Wings."

The plot thickens. On March 7, 1910, (we have to assume before the transaction with the Berkshire Museum), the Smithsonian wrote the Wrights, that they were creating a display and would like to exhibit one of the Wright machines or a model of one. Wilbur wrote back and queried which plane they would like. He stated that most of the parts of the 1903 plane were still in existence and that they could reconstruct it.  Link to the Library of Congress letter.  It would seem that he believed that he could recover the parts of the plane from Etheridge --or build another to stand in.The Smithsonian didn't respond with the enthusiasm the Wrights expected at their offer of the 1903 artifact; in fact, in answer to Wilbur's query, which one(?), they asked for a model of the 1908 plane that was flown at Fort Meyer. This is the plane that crashed and killed Lt. Selfridge. Granted, this was insensitive of the Smithsonian. Later statements by Orville indicate they were highly offended, even embittered that the Smithsonian wasn't particularly interested in the 1903 Flyer. It would be the next year we figure that the plane was sold by Etheridge to the Pittsfield Museum. Was it Wilbur's idea to arrange this sale to "get even" by allowing another museum to display the "Flyer" I? And he, of course, died before he could help put it together?

Now let's take a look at one of the first letters (LOC) we can find that son in law Samuel Colt writes to Orville for Zenas Crane, the owner of the Berkshire Museum at Pittsfield. Remember that by now, Wilbur Wright has died of typhoid. Also, keep in mind that Crane has been told he has the 1905 "Flyer" that was crashed in 1908.  As usual, it is frustrating that some of this correspondence doesn't seem to exist any longer. Note also that Colt writes to Orville as if he and Wilbur are one and the same.

.

The following letter dated March 2, 1914 is Orville's answer. It begs the question, why does he have to ask Colt what parts of the Flyer he has at the museum?

*The aileron was patented by Matthew Boulton in 1868. Wright historians claim that although many pioneer aviators employed the aileron before the Wright's wing warping apparatus, none of them used it for lateral, or roll control, or used it in conjunction with the rudder. See "Air and Space". This is not true. A prime example is Montgomery's glider equipped with ailerons, which publicly demonstrated in 1905 complete lateral or roll control in conjunction with a rudder large enough to serve the use the Wrights claimed was theirs and their alone. See "The Wrights Invented What? Lateral Control and John Montgomery" in this blog.

** Wilbur's skillful flying in France convinced many that he and Orville were first to fly. According to a Smithsonian website, "Over the next several weeks he made headlines around the world with one stunning flight after another—demonstrating once and for all that the Wrights’ claim to priority in the invention of the airplane was true (there had been skeptics), and that their airplanes were capable of tight turns and a degree of control impossible with other machines." This is, of course, fuzzy thinking and faulty logic. A non sequitur. One can't conclude that demonstrations of flying that impressed the French in 1908 proves that  the Wrights were first to fly five years earlier in 1903.

***  It's ironic that the Islanders (except for one) made no money from the work they did for the Wrights at Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills.The Wrights profited immensely. What the Islanders did, they did for nothing, except for one man, Dan Tate, who quit because he could make more there by fishing. The Wrights were notoriously tight with money, but at the same time, the Life Savers were extremely underpaid for the work they did for a living. So when you read about the Wrights bragging how little it cost them to build and "fly" their machine, it must be realized that the Wrights begrudged paying for their help, with the exception of some gifts at the end of the season that might have cost more to send back to Dayton than they were willing to pay.

 ****Orville Wright sent the claimed artifact of the 1903 plane to the Science Museum in London in order to essentially extort a statement from the Smithsonian that implied that a plane built prior to the Wrights'--the Langley aerodrome of 1903 was incapable of flight.

To be continued. (For the continuation of this story, please see "More Mystery of the Wright Flyer Wings--Continued."