The Real Father of Aviation?

Wilbur and Orville Wright are known as the fathers of aviation, the first men to fly. All history books, biographies, aviation material and encyclopedic references record December 17, 1903 as the date of the first successful engine propelled, winged flight. Their distance on that day in Kittyhawk was 872 feet for 59 seconds, never rising more than a few feet off the ground. But two years and four months earlier in Bridgeport, Connecticut, a German immigrant by the name of Gustav Whitehead ventured out onto some open fields with his flying device, several friends and three major newspaper reporters. He was reported to have made four flights that day; the longest of these was said to have been a mile and a half in distance with a height of over 200 feet from the ground. But Gustav made the mistake of not measuring any times or distances, and the notes in his logs were sketchy at best, and by the time the debate was well into its prime the Wright Brothers were, in the midst of the Great War, seen as American heroes, while Gustav was seen as nothing more than a Kraut. No one wanted to believe that a man whose heritage could be directly linked to the monstrous Huns could also be responsible for the first successful flight, so everyone chose to believe the Wright Brothers’ story instead, and in 1948, if there was any hope left for Gustav Whitehead, it was washed away by the Smithsonian Institute. The world famous museum at that time had the opportunity to obtain the famous first plane, the “flyer,” from the estate of recently deceased Orville Wright. But in order to get hold of this priceless historic object, they had to first sign a contract stating that they would not publish or permit to be displayed any statements about any successful aircrafts or pilots before Dec. 17, 1903, and from that time forward, the fate of Gustav Whitehead was sealed. And if you reference “first flight” or phrases in this realm, you will indeed see that very little comes to the surface with regards to the real father of aviation. In fact, there are references to several other men who achieved flight before Orville and Wilbur but who are just as unknown as Gustav Whitehead.