70 Facts About Gustave Whitehead

Much of Gustave Whitehead's reputation rests on a newspaper article which was written as an eyewitness report and describes his powered and sustained flight in Connecticut on 14 August 1901.

Several local newspapers reported on other flight experiments that Gustave Whitehead made in 1901 and subsequent years.

Gustave Whitehead was born in Leutershausen, Bavaria, the second child of Karl Weisskopf and his wife Babetta.

Gustave Whitehead's parents died in 1886 and 1887, when he was a boy.

Gustave Whitehead then trained as a mechanic and traveled to Hamburg, where in 1888 he was forced to join the crew of a sailing ship.

Gustave Whitehead went to sea again for several years, learning more about wind, weather and bird flight.

Horsman hired Gustave Whitehead to build and operate advertising kites and model gliders.

Gustave Whitehead made plans to add a motor to propel one of his gliders.

In 1893, Gustave Whitehead was in Boston where he experimented with gliders, kites, and models, and where he worked at Harvard's kite-flying meteorological station.

In 1896, Gustave Whitehead was hired as a mechanic for the Boston Aeronautical Society.

Gustave Whitehead made a few short and low flights in the glider, but did not succeed in flying the ornithopter.

Gustave Whitehead was quoted in Pittsburgh newspapers in December 1899 as still constructing an aircraft, although he did say that he had flown it in Boston.

Gustave Whitehead expressed his desire to keep the location of any future experiments hidden to avoid drawing a crowd that might make a "snap-shot verdict of failure".

The claimed aviation event for which Gustave Whitehead is best known reportedly took place in Fairfield, Connecticut, on 14 August 1901 and was described at length in an article in the edition of 18 August 1901 of the weekly Bridgeport Herald newspaper.

The article, written as an eyewitness report, stated that Gustave Whitehead piloted his Number 21 aircraft in a controlled powered flight for about half a mile, reaching a height of 50 feet and landing safely.

Gustave Whitehead simply shifted his weight more to one side than the other.

Gustave Whitehead turned her nose away from the clump of sprouts when within fifty yards of them and took her course around them as prettily as a yacht on the sea avoids a bar.

Gustave Whitehead looked back and waved his hand exclaiming, 'I've got it at last.

Junius Harworth, who as a boy was one of Gustave Whitehead's helpers, said Gustave Whitehead flew the airplane at another time in mid-1901 from Howard Avenue East to Wordin Avenue, along the edge of property belonging to the local gas company.

On 21 September 1901, Collier's Weekly ran a picture of Gustave Whitehead's "latest flying machine" and said that he "recently made a successful flight of half a mile".

On 7 December 1901, the Coconino Sun ran a story that stated Gustave Whitehead was the "inventor of the flying machine" and was planning a flight to New York.

In two published letters he wrote to American Inventor magazine, Gustave Whitehead said the flights took place over Long Island Sound.

Gustave Whitehead said the airplane, which had a boat-like fuselage, landed safely in the water near the shore.

For steering, Gustave Whitehead said he varied the speed of the two propellers and used the aircraft rudder.

Gustave Whitehead said the techniques worked well on his second flight and enabled him to fly a big circle back to the shore where his helpers waited.

Gustave Whitehead was of fine moral character and never in all the long time I was associated with him or knew him did he ever appear to exaggerate.

Gustave Whitehead saw his brother's aircraft only on the ground, not in powered flight.

Gustave Whitehead gave a description 33 years later of the engine and aircraft, including details of the steering apparatus:.

The article said Gustave Whitehead did not have money to build a shelter for the aircraft because of a quarrel with his financial backer.

The article reported that in early 1903, Gustave Whitehead built a 200-horsepower eight-cylinder engine, intended to power a new aircraft.

Gustave Whitehead did not give identifiers to his first aircraft, but according to Randolph and Harvey to the end of 1901 he had built "fifty-six airplanes".

Gustave Whitehead described his No 22 aircraft and compared some of its features to the No 21 in a letter he wrote to the editor of American Inventor magazine, published 1 April 1902.

Gustave Whitehead explained that the two front wheels were connected to the kerosene motor, and the rear wheels were used for steering while on the ground.

Gustave Whitehead built gliders until about 1906 and was photographed flying them.

Gustave Whitehead hid his engines and most of his tools in a neighbor's cellar and continued his aviation work.

Gustave Whitehead designed a braking safety device, hoping to win a prize offered by a railroad.

Gustave Whitehead demonstrated it as a scale model but won nothing.

Gustave Whitehead constructed an "automatic" concrete-laying machine, which he used to help build a road north of Bridgeport.

Around 1915 Gustave Whitehead worked in a factory as a laborer and repaired motors to support his family.

Gustave Whitehead died of a heart attack, on 10 October 1927, after attempting to lift an engine out of a car he was repairing.

Gustave Whitehead stumbled onto his front porch and into his home, then collapsed dead in the house.

Gustave Whitehead's work remained mostly unknown to the public and aeronautical community after 1911 until a 1935 article was published in Popular Aviation magazine, co-authored by educator and journalist Stella Randolph and aviation history buff Harvey Phillips.

Randolph expanded the article into the book Lost Flights of Gustave Whitehead, published in 1937.

Gustave Whitehead sought out people who had known Whitehead and had seen his flying machines and engines, and she obtained 16 affidavits from 14 people and included the text of their statements in the book.

Harvard University economics professor John B Crane wrote an article for National Aeronautic Magazine in December 1936 disputing claims and reports that Whitehead flew, but he adopted a different tone the following year, after further research.

In 1949, Crane published a new article in Air Affairs magazine which supported claims that Gustave Whitehead flew, but he made no reference to his first article, nor did he refute his previous evidence.

The Connecticut Aeronautical Historical Association asked him and his 9315th US Air Force Reserve Squadron to investigate whether Gustave Whitehead had made powered flights.

O'Dwyer continued his research for years and became convinced that Gustave Whitehead did fly before the Wright brothers.

In 2013, Jane's All the World's Aircraft published an editorial which asserted that Gustave Whitehead was first to make a powered controlled flight.

Gustave Whitehead said that he was not present at the flight on 14 August 1901, and that he thought that the newspaper story was "imaginary".

Gustave Whitehead said that he did not know Andrew Cellie, the other associate of Whitehead who was supposed to be there, and that none of Whitehead's aircraft ever flew, as far as he knew.

Gustave Whitehead's mood changed to anger when I asked him about Gustave Whitehead.

My father had a hauling business and I often hitched up the horses and helped Gustave Whitehead take his airplane to where he wanted to go.

Gustave Whitehead surmised that it was Andrew Suelli, a Swiss or German immigrant known as Zulli and Whitehead's nextdoor neighbor before moving to the Pittsburgh area in 1902.

Gustave Whitehead said that the image correlated with the drawing that was published in the 1901 Bridgeport Herald article which reported a Whitehead flight.

Gustave Whitehead always used sketches rather than photographs with his features on inventions.

Gustave Whitehead was highly regarded by his peers on other local newspapers.

Gustave Whitehead used the florid style of the day, but was not one to exaggerate.

Gray points out that the Sun article described an unmanned test of a Gustave Whitehead flying machine on 3 May 1901, but the Bridgeport Herald changed this to a manned flight.

Louise Gustave Whitehead told Randolph that she sewed the material for the wings on the plane and took care of the household, but did not watch any experiments.

Gustave Whitehead's daughter Rose was three years old at the time of the controversial 1901 powered flight, and the other children had not yet been born.

In 1908, Beach and Gustave Whitehead received a patent for a monoplane glider.

O'Dwyer believed that Beach had "recanted" his earlier view that Gustave Whitehead had flown, as indicated by the Scientific American articles.

In one part, it claims that Gustave Whitehead did not fly, and in another it describes how Gustave Whitehead's machine always landed safely in "pancaking" fashion.

Reports that Gustave Whitehead made a flight in Connecticut were noticed by the Smithsonian Institution.

Langley's chief engineer, Charles M Manly, suspected claims for the Whitehead machine were "fraudulent".

Hodge to inspect the Number 21 aircraft, which Gustave Whitehead had put on display in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Brinchman documented that Gardner and Findley, who helped Orville rebut the Gustave Whitehead claims, participated in crafting text in the agreement that the Institution is required to use in its labeling of the Wright Flyer.

Gustave Whitehead researchers have pointed out that the Herald was not a daily newspaper but a weekly, published only on Sundays.

Wright discussed John J Dvorak, a physics professor at Washington University in St Louis, who had designed an engine and hired Whitehead to build it after praising him publicly.