debor008

  "The Wrights are claimed to have solved the mysteries of flight," states Aviation Historian Paul Jackson; "still to be solved is the mystery of how they managed to stage the first air hijack -- of the history of aviation." Jackson's statement is the conclusion of an exceptional essay (below),  just released, regarding early aviation history, as presented by contemporary historians . Today's views have been unduly influenced by the many questionable claims of the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur. Paul Jackson is writing in his private capacity as an Aviation Historian, not his public persona as Senior Editor of one of the world's most prestigious aviation publications, "Jane's All the World's Aircraft." --ed.* Rare "close-up" photograph of the Wright  "Flyer" (III) at Kill Devil Hills, 1908. Note the inclined track  for take off, even in 1908. Without such assistance of wind and gravity, the Wrights used a cat...

"My mind is made up; don't confuse me with the facts"!--Oft repeated quote   "Skepticism is the first Step towards truth." --Denis Diderot " Harry P. Moore, reporter, who "scooped the Wright story of a "first flight." "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 Two Brothers, Three Telegrams, Only Two Attempts at Flight?  December 17,  1903, is celebrated as a milestone in flight for the whole world. It is the day that we are told the "first manned-powered-controlled-heavier-than-air-sustained flight" was made in all of history. The achievement was claimed by Orville Wright of the Wright brothers. But ...