Photo suggests Wright brothers weren’t first to fly

LONDON: For more than a century the world has accepted that the Wright brothers were the first to conquer the skies in a powered flight.

But now a US state has rewritten history... and given the crown to a German-born inventor.

Connecticut governor Dannel Malloy has signed into law a bill recognising that Gustave Whitehead, a former resident of the state, flew in 1901, two years and four months before Orville and Wilbur lifted off in North Carolina.

The move is not mere local bravado. There have long been claims about Whitehead and his bizarre-looking contraption, called Condor.

But new evidence unearthed by Australian aviation historian John Brown has prompted some experts to concede that Whitehead may have pipped the Wrights to the post by quite some way.

Brown discovered a blurred newspaper photograph which apparently showed Condor in flight, its propeller whirring as it rose into the air on wooden wheels and canvas wings stretched taut over bat-like wooden arms.

It supported testimony from witnesses that the machine first flew at Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the early hours of August 14, 1901, covering 2.4km at a height of 15m, managing to turn slightly in both directions. The Wrights’ first flight lasted just 36m and 12 seconds.

Whitehead’s supporters, who hailed Connecticut’s move as an important first step in correcting a historical error, believe he became lost to history because he showed poor business sense and failed to capitalise on his breakthrough.

The Wright camp however said the photo was too fuzzy to prove anything. – Daily Mail