Aug. 14, 1901: Before the Wright Bros., There Was Gustave
1901: Gustave Whitehead purportedly travels a mile-and-a-half in the air aboard his birdlike monoplane. If he did, that means he flew nearly two-and-a-half years before the Wright Brothers’ celebrated flight at Kitty Hawk.
There is evidence that several aviators on both sides of the Atlantic preceded Orville and Wilbur Wright into manned, heavier-than-air flight, although Whitehead’s claim appears to be the best documented.
That few people outside of aviation buffs have ever heard of Whitehead (originally “Weisskopf” before he immigrated to America from Germany) can be attributed to several factors, including, his defenders say, the outright refusal of the Smithsonian Institution to even consider the possibility that anyone beat the Wright Brothers into the air.
Nevertheless, that’s exactly what Whitehead appears to have done. Although there is an affidavit supporting Whitehead’s claim to making a bona fide flight as early as April 1899 (filed by an assistant who said he was scalded by steam from the aircraft’s motor), his August ascent was the first one clearly documented and witnessed by people not associated with the project.