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Smeaton's Coefficient : The Little Number with a Big Difference    “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants -- Isaac Newton "There is not a discovery in science, however revolutionary, however sparkling with insight, that does not arise out of what went before."--Isaac Asimov  In 1896, with Alexander Graham Bell looking on, Samuel Pierpont Langley's steam powered ,  model "aerodrome" successfully flew 3/4 of a mile. Launched again, it flew once more, nearly as far as the first time. Quantico, Virginia, 1896. The successful flight of Professor Samuel Langley's unmanned model-- six years before the Wrights' claimed manned flight of 1903 " I was myself a witness of the memorable experiments made by Professor Langley on the 6th of May, 1896, with his large-sized model which had a spread of wing of about 14 feet. No one who witnessed the extraordinary spectacle of a steam-engine flying with wings in the air , like a gr...

Wilbur Wright dies. Wilbur Wright died of typhoid on May 30, 1912. The world was stunned.  By the time of his death, it had been accepted by many over the world that the Wrights were the first to fly as they had claimed. But it was Wilbur who had made the only possible flight December 17, 1903, that was long enough to be considered "sustained"--852 feet. From a New York Times article  after Wilbur Wright's  death   Soon though, with Wilbur no longer alive, it's easy to see that his younger brother, Orville, stole his title of "first to fly." We can see that in the Sept.,1914, Boys' Life article , where Orville claimed that he was the one who had made the flight of 852 feet. However, he wouldn't have been able to stick to that story--even though it's still being published by Boys' Life. So probably with Orville's help, the unsustained "flight" of only 120 feet that Orville really made became accepted as the "first flight....

  To make your children capable of honesty is the beginning of education . ~ John Ruskin In previous posts, we have been questioning the truth of aviation history as it's presented by the brothers Wright. Was Orville or Wilbur the first to fly? At the time of his death in 1912, Wilbur had been named the "first to fly," for the simple reason that the first three claimed flights of the Wright brothers December 17, 1903, weren't considered long enough to be called "sustained." Both brothers had said that Wilbur made the fourth flight, lasting 57-59 seconds. But soon after Wilbur's death, in a 1914 Boys' Life magazine, an article credited to Orville Wright was published where he claimed it was he who made the longest reported flight of 57 seconds instead of his brother, Wilbur. Why is this significant? For one reason, the brothers themselves didn't accept the first three shorter "flights"as true flights. (This will be addressed in a later ...

"What we need is not the will to believe but the will to find out." - Bertrand Russell                     "Only a fool of a scientist would dismiss the evidence and reports                      in front of him and substitute his own beliefs in their place."                                                  - Paul Kurtz     The cover of Boys' Life magazine Sept., 1914  Historians and the public, who want to believe the Wrights were first to fly, have many excuses for  inconsistencies in witness's descriptions of` what happened at Kill Devil Hills, N.C.,  Dec.14-17, 1903--and indeed...

  "The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible." - Bertrand Russell "All great truths begin as blasphemies." - George Bernard Shaw   A good many historians today base their version of early aviation history on the statements of the Wright Brothers. But a critical thinker has to establish that we can depend on the Wrights' honesty and consistency, especially since we have already established that their descriptions of the first claimed flights are not consistent with those of two of their five witnesses. The Wrights say they took off from level ground on December 17, 1903. Witnesses Daniels and Etheridge state that they placed the plane on the side of the hill for the claimed flights that day. What do later publications, documents and letters tell us about truth in the Wrigh...

..."Was the first Wright flight of December 17, 1903 (120 feet) sustained? Probably not...." -- Tom Crouch  Were the Wright brothers the first to fly as we've been taught in our  public schools? Orville Wright claimed that they made four actual flights on December 17, 1903, at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. On December 14 Wilbur failed in the first attempt to fly  He had won the coin toss for the first trial but he quickly lost control of the plane and it crashed. After repairing the plane, they decided to try again on the cold, windy day of December 17. Since Wilbur got the first shot on the 14th, it was Orville's turn to try first. These are the flights he claimed they made: 1. Orville-- estimated 120 feet (100 feet beyond the track)--12 seconds 2. Wilbur--estimated 175 feet--13 seconds 3. Orville--estimated 200 feet--15 seconds 4. Wilbur --measured 852 feet--59 seconds But did they really fly? Below is the opinion of Tom Crouch, Senior Curator o...