First Powered Flight in 1901 - before Wright Brothers

When studying for the design of the HPA glider and reading in Phil Scott's "The Wrong Stuff?" I noticed No. 21, Gustave Whitehead's powered kite. It's fairly typical of the time made with bamboo spars covered in 450 sf/42 m² and powered by a 12-horsepower engine.

Gustave claimed to have flown it several times up to 1.5km and an altitude of a couple hundred feet.

His claim was discounted by lack of photographic evidence alone, rather than requesting the machine be flown again to verify it could even accomplish the feat.

So, in 2009, the lack of photographic evidence seems more ideology than anything else since there isn't any evidence that the claim was not true, we do have photographs of Whitehead's machine and it certainly will fly and be much easier to handle than a biplane wing setup.

Not to be confused with "anti-Wrights", I have no quarrel with what they did for aviation but no longer can give them the credit for first powered flight in this country, that was accomplished by Whitehead.

The evidence we do have means a replica can easily be constructed, including a replica engine, and see if it flies. If so, the Wright's name should be moved away from that historic moment and given to what appears to be a hobbyist, Gustave Whitehead, a seeming backyard inventor that got it right and went on to other things, no longer involved in aviation.

As a kitemaker, this thing will have no problem flying, it's a stable design with enough wing for the job.