120 Years Of Aviation... Let's Celebrate

[GaryW]

120 years ago .....is where it all began with the Wright Brothers....... Let's celebrate aviation!

 

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by GaryWebb

[Cuban8]

Didn't see any mention of their achievement on the 17th except for a few posts on social media which attracted the usual bunch of critics and deniers who seem to be ready to spread their odd agendas at the drop of a hat.

 

[GaryW]

3 minutes ago, Cuban8 said:

Didn't see any mention of their achievement on the 17th except for a few posts on social media which attracted the usual bunch of critics and deniers who seem to be ready to spread their odd agendas at the drop of a hat.

 

 

For the Non Believers out there....

 

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

I live opposite to where this took place.

https://www.thefirstairraces.net/meetings/do0910/events.php

[Cuban8]

I still have a childrens' book bought for me in 1966 when I was nine called 'The Story of Flight' and I really think that this profusely illustrated and colourful  volume really focused my emerging curiosity and interest in aviation which continues to this day. The chapter on the Wrights fascinated me and I still recall being amazed at their 'Flyer' design and how it differed so much to the aircraft that were to be seen all around one and were commonplace in the 1960s as they are now. I remember buying one of those Solarbo balsa bundles for a couple of shillings and putting together a passable replica miniature 'Flyer' and being very pleased with it.......until I tried to fly it - well, I was only nine!

I find their story as absorbing as any other great historical figures and although Wilbur and Orville were certainly not the only experimenters in the field of heavier than air flight at the turn of the 20th century - and it's also fair to say that they did build on the work of many others (and correcting many errors) but their clear thinking and understanding of such a multi-faceted problem (particularly what one did if and when a vehicle did lift itself from the ground i.e having proper three axis control) was, I believe instrumental in their success.

A great story of modern times that deserves retelling to a present day audience. The 1971 drama-doc of the Wrights starring Stacey Keach as Wilbur was excellent, but as far as I'm aware is now unavailable - unless someone knows different.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Cuban8

[J D 8]

Perhaps we should also celebrate the first model flight and the work of Sir George Caley a hundred years before the Wright's flew. The brothers acknowledged his work in leading to their success.

[i12fly]

5 hours ago, J D 8 said:

Perhaps we should also celebrate the first model flight and the work of Sir George Caley a hundred years before the Wright's flew. The brothers acknowledged his work in leading to their success.

....and Richard Pearce and Percy Pilcher....

[Mike T]

10 hours ago, john stones 1 - Moderator said:

I live opposite to where this took place.

https://www.thefirstairraces.net/meetings/do0910/events.php

Blimey!  We'd barely got off the ground before falling under the dead hand of officialdom!

[Arthur Harris]

I was hoping we would celebrate Gustave Whitehead, who was the first person to achieve powered flight: 

According to an affidavit given in 1934 by Louis Darvarich, a friend of Whitehead, the two men made a motorized flight of about half a mile in Pittsburgh's Schenley Park in April or May 1899. Darvarich said they flew at a height of 20 to 25 ft (6.1 to 7.6 m) in a steam-powered monoplane aircraft and crashed into a brick building. Darvarich said he was stoking the aircraft's boiler aboard the craft and was badly scalded in the accident, requiring several weeks in a hospital.[8] Because of this incident, Whitehead was forbidden by the police to perform any more experiments in Pittsburgh.[5] Aviation historian William F. Trimble, pointing to a lack of contemporary proof, dismissed this story in 1982 as a case of "overactive imaginations."[9] Whitehead's stated control method – a shifting of body weight – was said by Trimble to be insufficient to control a powered aircraft, and the supposed charcoal-fired steam powerplant could not have been powerful enough to lift itself off the ground.

Gustave Whitehead - Wikipedia

Edited December 21, 2023 by Arthur Harris

[J D 8]

 Pictured here is my replica Cayley medal which were made by the Royal Mint with the approval of Angela Lady Frank Caley [ great great great grand daughter of Sir George] in celebration of 100 years of the Wrights first flight.

        The original medal now held by the Science Museum was discovered in 1926 at the family home along with many notes of Caley's aeronautical experiments.

[Geoff S]

I saw a YouTube video last year about a contender for the first powered flight pre-Wright brothers and it wasn't the Brazilian. It took place in the USA by IIRC a British immigrant who was a relatively shy individual.  It just popped up in my feed and I can't find it now.  Apparently, a replica of his machine has been built and flown relatively recently. The video claimed that no-one has succeeded in flying a replica of the original Wright flyer. 

 

Has anyone else come across this video?  I would dearly like to watch it again.  I'm sure I didn't imagine it.

 

PS - I think the guy was called Gustave Whitehead ( a German immigrant - albeit with British-sounding surname 🙂 )

Edited December 22, 2023 by Geoff S

[Eric Robson]

13 hours ago, Mike T said:

Blimey!  We'd barely got off the ground before falling under the dead hand of officialdom!

Nice to see you carrying on the tradition John at a reduced scale. 

[J D 8]

 At the town of Saundersfoot not far from me there is a claim that a chap called Bill Frost was the first to fly in 1895.

There are many other claims for the first powered flight but it is another matter having the first powered and controlled flight that ends in a thing we all like, a landing and not a crash.

  A prime example of these claim's is that of Samuel Langley who's "aerodrome" aircraft took off from the roof of his houseboat in early December 1903 then folded in the air before falling into the Potomac river was the first.

 

  The famed Smithsonian institute maintained Langley's claim of first powered flight until the 1940's [ he had been a secretary of the Smithsonian] despite protests from Orville Wright [ Wilber had died in 1912] who dismayed, had the Wright flyer displayed at the Science museum London. It was not returned to America until after the end of the war.