A machine got off the ground under its own power. And that had never ever happened before.
Um... no. That's not true.
Machines have been getting off the ground for some time. Even machines with people in them were getting off the ground for almost a decade.
Most of the flights were brief. A Frenchman made a few quick hops and crashed in the 1880s. In 1894 in England Hiram Maxim in a 3 ton behemoth left the ground briefly but he lost his nerve and landed. The plane was damaged and he never continued with his flights.
Gustave Whitehead in 1902 made was witnessed flying his own craft above Long Island sound. He went broke with his constant experimenting.
What makes the Wrights different is they didn't die, or go broke, or become overly discouraged when faced with failure. They also had rigorous scientific experimentation behind them which many of the above didn't have.
They were not the first, but the first to survive, keep going and get the credit.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Um... no. That's not true.
Machines have been getting off the ground for some time. Even machines with people in them were getting off the ground for almost a decade.
Most of the flights were brief. A Frenchman made a few quick hops and crashed in the 1880s. In 1894 in England Hiram Maxim in a 3 ton behemoth left the ground briefly but he lost his nerve and landed. The plane was damaged and he never continued with his flights.
Gustave Whitehead in 1902 made was witnessed flying his own craft above Long Island sound. He went broke with his constant experimenting.
What makes the Wrights different is they didn't die, or go broke, or become overly discouraged when faced with failure. They also had rigorous scientific experimentation behind them which many of the above didn't have.
They were not the first, but the first to survive, keep going and get the credit.
-m