The Curtiss Hydroplane

The Curtiss hydroplane

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Truth in Aviation History: A Work in Progress

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Photo from blog post "Kitty Hawk, A New Perspective" 11/14/17 ​ Our blog, "Truth in Aviation History," has been a work in progress. And it continues to be. When we began our research a number of years ago, we never realized how many errors we would discover. It was like opening a Pandora's Box, chock full of aviation misinformation--provable "mis-history." I first cracked the lid when I began looking for answers to why a person as amazing as Glenn Hammond Curtiss , one of the most important aviation pioneers in history, would have so little mention in the many books I found. I might never have questioned this if he wasn't a cousin. The printed history smacked of a kind of mysterious bias or even collusion. There were shelves full of children's stories focused on the Wright Brothers, making certain that our youth believed the Wrights were the greatest pioneers, mainly because they were "the first to fly." That was accepted by all...
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The History of the Langley Aerodrome: Truth and Deception

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Professor Samuel Pierpont Langley's 1903 Aerodrome   . The saga of a pioneer plane--and the controversy surrounding its history  Professor Langley The Langley Aerodrome, front wings in place, preparing for a launch. The Background In the fall of 1903, the head of the Smithsonian Institution, Professor Samuel Pierpont Langley, attempted to launch a heavier than air, man-carrying, powered plane. The launch failed, as did a subsequent attempt; and his machine, christened the “Aerodrome,” ignominiously fell into the river. Only days after Langley’s second try, the Wright brothers claimed that they successfully flew their own powered plane at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina We are embarking on a parallel blog to "Truth in Aviation History"  in which we will search for the truth about the Langley/Wright story. The link will be provided. An examination of the current "history" must obviously include a look at the constant revisions of so-called "facts" by a...
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The "First Flight" Picture: Puzzling Questions

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A close study of the iconic picture (third picture, below) of the 1903 Wright flyer reveals strange anomalies. If you observe the cast shadows, you can easily see that they are contradictory.  A bright, sunny day will produce dark crisp shadows like the cast shadows on the box in the foreground shown above. An overcast day like it was on Dec. 17, 1903, will produce fainter, softer shadows like that to the left of Wilbur. One could say a shaft of sunlight broke through the clouds hitting the box. But then there would be a cast shadow just as strong to the left of the box on the sand. Note that the cast shadow beneath the plane is dark as opposed to the one cast by Wilbur, which is faint and barely discernible. These shadows should be relatively consistent in the same cloudy conditions.  Adding to the inconsistent shadows, the perspective of the shadows is questionable   Position of the elevator is more than 5-6 degrees   The position of the elevator on the pla...
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