The WRIGHTS and GLENN CURTISS
by Steve Clugston, Curator of Exhibitions, March Field Air Museum
Above, Orville Wright in a Military Flyer at Fort Myer, Virginia in 1908 with original stereographic left and right images and larger view of Orville.
(photo courtesy of University of California at Riverside,California Museum of Photography)
The Wrights are currently held to be the first to achieve, in a long list of modifiers, the coveted title: the "First to Fly". Their achievement or rather achievements, are listed as being the first: "powered, sustained, controlled, heavier-than-air flight" in human history! It is disputed that even this may not be entirely the case, as it has been argued for over a century. Most, if not all other claims have systematically been discounted, but not without difficulty in our obsession and quest with being the first in anything.
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Bypassing the long list of glider flights, as in the cases of Cayley, Montgomery (Note: Click here to read about another aviation pioneer, John Montgomery.), Lilienthal, and Chanute, the history of powered flight begins in 1890:
Clement Ader of France performed the first unassisted, takeoff in a powered aircraft using steam power. He actually flew for 150 feet, 30 feet longer than the Wright 1903 flyer did on its first flight! Critics allege that Ader's flight was not sustained, however this does not explain why it was longer than the Wright's first 120 foot flight, which was supposed to be sustained. This is in addition to the fact that Ader's aircraft, the Eole, did have controllable wings, also making it a controlled flight! On the other hand, his sponsor, the government of France, did contribute to a claim that he flew his later Avion III for more than 980 feet in 1897. This exaggerated report was substantiated, only partially by some witnesses, but remains controversial since it was not a completely sustained flight.
It was well known that in 1894, Sir Hiram Maxim (inventor of the machine gun) tested a huge steam powered biplane by having it lift off a train rail for about 2 seconds, then crash. This was obviously not sustained nor controlled.
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In 1901 and 1902, Gustave Whitehead, a German born American, made some "recorded flights or hops" in a steam powered aircraft (on 14 August 1901) near Bridgeport, Connecticut. This claim was generally regarded as unfounded, mostly by Orville Wright, who was somewhat suspiciously the loudest critic, but Whitehead's claims may still be supported by documentation.
In 1903, Preston Watson, a Scotsman, once claimed to have flown before the Wrights, but later admitted it was in an unpowered glider. Karl Jatho, a German made some powered "hops" in a semi biplane, but this too was unsustained and uncontrolled.
A Richard Pearse of New Zealand allegedly flew in '03, but later admitted his attempts to fly were in 1904, were glider flights, and they were not successful.
In December of 1903, the month, if not the year of fate: aviation pioneer Prof. Samuel Pierpoint Langley witnessed his pilot, Charles Manley, crash his tandem wing Aerodrome into the Potomac River, just one week before the Wrights flew at Kitty Hawk. It was later determined that Langley's aircraft caught, ironically, on the launching catapult and this kept the craft from being properly released, causing serious damage. To make matters even more controversial, in 1914, aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss was asked by the staff of the Smithsonian Institute, (Langley's former employer) to see if he could rebuild the late Prof. Langley's Aerodrome and make it fly.
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Curtiss's airplane business was being threatened by several law suits from the Wright Co., who claimed that their previously awarded wing warping patent covered all later inventions (which they ironically had nothing to do with): such as Curtiss's ailerons and in fact, the airplane itself, even on the other side of the Atlantic! Langley's restored Aerodrome not only flew on the first experimental flight, but Curtiss even improved the airplane's horsepower on a later second experiment and proved it to be even more viable indeed. This experiment led the Smithsonian to adopt the theory that Langley was potentially the first to make a powered aircraft. This, of course, was hotly criticized and argued against by Orville Wright. In 1942, the Smithsonian reversed its position on Langley and adopted Wright's claim instead in order to receive the original 1903 Wright Flyer into its collection in 1948, where it is today.
THE WRIGHT INFLUENCE
Another strong point of controversy lies in how much of the Wrights' flights and writings actually did influence aviation before 1908, when by that time, aviation was active on both sides of the Atlantic.
Above, Wright Flyer Model A at Long Island, New York in 1909 with original stereo left and right images. (photo courtesy of University of California at Riverside,California Museum of Photography)
There can be a greater argument made for the work of Octave Chanute, who never flew a powered aircraft. Chanute was often the prime source of valuable aviation information for both Europe and America. He published many other early pioneers' works as well, and gave them all proper credit. He also was the Wrights' mentor and published their accomplishments accordingly. The Wrights' feats were still not fully realized until approximately 1906 and 1907! The Aero Club of America did not even acknowledge the many Wright flights in 1905 until March of 1906. These writings did not reach Europe until 1907 in the form of the French publication Les Experiences des Freres Wright. Even so, there was a great deal of European suspicion that the Wrights could not or did not achieve the flights they did. Most of this can be explained by French conceit, the Gauls claiming to be the first to fly, starting with the lighter-than-air Montgolfier balloons in the 1780s. Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian, was actually the first to successfully fly a powered, heavier-than-air craft in Europe, in France in 1906. Today, Dumont is regarded as the "Father of Aviation" in Brazil. This view was also held in France until 1908 when Wilber and Orville Wright finally publicly demonstrated their flyers in France and the U.S. Before then, the Wrights had been secretive about their flyers and their feats and declined to enter the public arena or air shows. By then, flight control by use of the aileron, and more powerful aircraft engines had been developed instead, making wing warping, The Wright's claim to fame, obsolete.
The FRENCH CONNECTION
Alberto Santos-Dumont, Paris, France (about 1908). First man to fly powered flight in Europe. (photo courtesy of the Mission Inn, Riverside, CA)
It was therefore another set of brothers: Gabriel and Charles Voisin who built the first French commercial airplanes and who stated that French aviators knew nothing of the Wrights until 1908. There was also a feud between the Voisins and the Farman brothers, Henri and Maurice. As a matter of interest that the French were unaware of the Wright's many accomplishments: a prize of 50,000 francs was posted in 1907 for the 1st flyer to fly a one-kilometer flight in a circle. The prize went to Henri Farman in a Voisin-Farman biplane. Farman also won 10,000 francs for a 15-minute flight on July 6, 1908 and challenged the Wrights to a contest, which they declined. Finally, from August till December of 1908, the French witnessed Wilber Wright's demonstration flights. One was for 77 miles, over 2 hours and 20 minutes in the air, prompting some to admit that "we are beaten", according to famous French flyer Leon Delagrange. On July 25, 1909, Louis Bleriot became famous for flying his monoplane over the English Channel, winning a $5,000 prize from the London Daily Mail. Robert Esnault-Pelterie is known for his his 1st use of the aileron, which was adopted and improved (or invented independently) by Glenn Curtiss in America. This was a vast improvement over the Wright's wing-warping technique of flight control, in that ailerons have been used in aircraft ever since. Pelterie is also credited with the building of the first fuselage (enclosed aircraft body) in 1907, (although Sir George Cayley designed a model of a fuselage as early as 1799).
GLENN CURTISS
Glenn Curtiss in one of his flying machines (about 1906)
(photo courtesy of the California Museum of Photography, University of California at Riverside)
Alexander Graham Bell, (the famous inventor of the telephone) founded the A.E.A. (Aerial Experiment Association) in 1907 and invited Glenn Hammond Curtiss to help him build "a practical airplane" which would carry a man on its own power, (indicating a possible unawareness of the Wright's previous secluded experiments. Curtiss was already known for developing probably the best aircraft engines at the time, having been contracted in by Capt. Thomas Baldwin, the famous balloonist, to build an engine for his lighter-than-air craft. Ironically, a Frederick Baldwin, was an A.E.A. member as chief engineer. Lt. Thomas F. Selfridge (who was later to die as a passenger in a Wright airplane) was secretary. A Dr. William Whitney Christmas made a flight in a biplane of his own design on March 8, 1908 at Fairfax Courthouse, Virginia, but this was not "publicly" observed. The first recognized "publicly observed" demonstration of a powered heavier-than-air flyer is credited to Glenn Curtiss, who flew his June Bug on July 4, 1908 in front of a huge crowd and skeptical newspaper reporters from New York. (Frederick Baldwin actually flew A.E.A.'s Red Wing before this on March 12, 1908, but again, it was not public). The Wright Co. in America, who had bought the Wright patents in 1909, continued alleged "infringement" litigations against Glenn Curtiss, but eventually was ordered to settle their differences by order of the Federal government in 1917. The Great War was in full force in Europe and the U.S. needed more state of the art airplanes for the U.S. and British Armies and what would eventually be a new U.S. Army Air Corps. The Wright Company first merged with Burgess in 1911, then with Glenn Martin, (another American pioneer in flight). The Wright-Martin Company formed in 1916. Glenn Curtiss had gone to England to design the famous Curtiss Jenny JN-4, which became the workhorse for the U.S. Army Signal Corps by 1916. It had a number of vast improvements, such as a tractor engine (instead of a pusher type), and a full fuselage. In 1917, the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company produced the famous Liberty engine, some Curtiss Jennies by contract (mostly produced by the Curtiss Aeroplane Company) and American built DeHavilland DH-4s. General Motors bought out Dayton-Wright in 1923 and it was sold to Consolidated Aircraft.
March Field was founded in 1917 as a U.S. Army airfield, and began operations in Riverside, California as a training base for aviation cadets. The predominant airplane was the Curtiss JN-4D Jenny. The Jenny opened a new era in civilian aviation in the 1920s, as an affordable and reliable mail carrier, crop duster and barnstormer in aerial circuses. This fed the public's new facination with aviation which culminated in Charles Linberg's solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic in 1927.