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Is It a Flight or Isn't It? History Speaks in 1905

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"God cannot alter the past, though historians can. "--Samuel Butler The Wright catapult (shown above). Manual labor was used in France to pull a weight to the top of the derrick. The weight was then dropped to provide the impetus the Wrights needed to propel their "Flyers" into the air.* Federation Aeronautique Internationale Criteria for a Viable Flight According to a Santos Dumont website, the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) was founded on October 14, 1905, to establish worldwide criteria to determine the viability of a heavier than air machine. It was patterned after the International Olympic Committee. The criteria were as follows: "a) the flight should be done before an official organization, qualified  to ratify it;  b) the flight should be done in calm weather and over a plain ground, and  properly documented;      c) the machine should be able to take off from a designated area by its own means with      a man on board;      d) the machin