First Flight [1903]

It´s not the first flight, the first flight was with Santos Dumont in France, everibody know this

jorge, Do some research! The Wrights invited Kitty Hawkers to watch flight trials Dec. 14 and 17th of 1903. They did not invite the newspapers so Dayton could get credit later.
The Wrights invited the public and media May 26th 1904 to Huffman Prairie but only
managed a flight of about 25 feet.
On Oct 5th 1905, after airplane mod’s they invited the public again & hundreds showed. Wilbur was able to keep the Wright Flyer 3 aloft for 39 minutes, 30 circuits of the field, over 24 miles.
The Wrights made at least six public flights of various successes before Santos D. in 1906.

It’s a bullshit!! The first flight was with SANTOS DUMMONT in France, everibody know this!!!!

“Santos-Dumont designed, built, and flew the first practical dirigible balloons. In doing so he became the first person to demonstrate that routine, controlled flight was possible. This “conquest of the air”, in particular winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize on 19 October 1901 on a flight that rounded the Eiffel Tower, made him one of the most famous persons in the world during the early 1900s.

In addition to his pioneering work in airships, Santos-Dumont made the first public flight of an airplane in Paris in October 1906. That aircraft, designated 14-bis or Oiseau de proie (French for “bird of prey”), is considered to be the first to take off, fly, and land without the use of catapults, high winds, launch rails, or other external assistance. He is the inventor of the airplane and in his homeland Brazil he is honored as the “Father of Aviation”.”

From Wikipedia.org

It’s complicated — it depends on how you define “flight”. People have allegedly been gliding since the 6th century; a free-flying balloon was used by Roziére in 1783; and heavier-than-air powered planes are around since the 19th century.

But what exactly constitutes “first flight”? Santos-Dumont has two claims over the Wright brothers — 1) his flight was well documented; 2) the “14 Bis” was launched unassisted by rails or a catapult and it did *not* require strong high winds.

Personally, I consider them all — as well as all the other incredible people who worked and still work so hard towards practical flight — amazing scientists and meaningful and competent contributors to society. And that includes the people in Rumania, New Zealand, Austria. What difference does it make? They’re all earthlings — well, most of the time.

Maybe we can leave it at that?

Cheers!

Bullshit, Santos Dumont was the first one to take flight.
If thw Wright brothers didn’t get anyone to prove that they did it, their loss.
In the rest of the world Dumont is known as the father of aviation.

Americans couldn’t bare the fact that they weren’t the first ones to set flight and LOST to a THIRD WORLD country.

Pitifull.

Orville & Wilbur Wright, United States — December 17, 1903
First controlled, powered heavier than air flight in their Wright Flyer: in the day’s fourth flight, Wilbur Wright flew 279 meters (852 ft) in 59 seconds. First three flights were approximately 120, 175, and 200 ft, respectively. The Wrights laid particular stress on fully and accurately describing all the requirements for controlled, powered flight and put them into use in an aircraft which took off from a level launching rail, with the aid of a headwind to achieve sufficient airspeed before reaching the end of the rail.

Traian Vuia, Romania — March 18, 1906
First flight by a heavier-than-air, self-propelled aircraft, without the aid of external takeoff mechanisms, such as rail or catapult. Many newspapers in France, the US, and the United Kingdom wrote about the first man to fly with a heavier-than-air machine with its own take off systems, propulsion units and landing gear. The thing that has been emphasized about Vuia’s achievement is that his machine was able to take off on a flat surface “only by on-board means”, without any “outside assistance”, be it an incline, rails, a catapult, etc.

Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazil — October 23, 1906
Described by some scholars as the first “sportsman of the air”. He made his first flight in Paris. His aircraft, designated 14 Bis, was the first to fly and land without a rail, catapult, or the presence of high winds (that is, by combustion engine like today’s aircraft)
(source:wikipedia.org)

So it was a romanian. Q.E.D.

Even a rock is able to fly using a catapult.

What is often overlooked is the fact that many key details of the Wright Flyer had become public in Europe in 1904 once the Wrights had received their patent. It is generally believed that Santos-Dumont made extensive use of this information in the design of his plane and that he would not have been successful without the Wright’s influence. Furthermore, even if the Wright’s first flight is discounted, detractors often overlook that the pair made three more flights that same day, the longest covering 852 ft (260 m) and lasting nearly one minute. Even more impressive are the accomplishments of the Wright Flyer II in 1904. Among these was the world’s first circular flight and a five minute trip covering nearly three miles (4.8 km) that occurred on 20 September 1904, two years before Santos-Dumont’s first flight.

Santos-Dumont supporters go on to argue that his flight was verified by the Aero-Club De Frances, the predecessor of today’s Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) that is considered an objective international body for conferring aviation records. The only witnesses to the Wright brothers flights, however, were typically close friends and family. On the other hand, it should be noted that the Aero-Club was a much different group in 1906 than it is today. Not only was the Club in a feud with the Wrights because of the brother’s perceived secretiveness and lack of cooperation, but several of its members were directly involved in and providing funding for the work of Santos-Dumont. Given this inherent conflict of interest, the partiality of the Aero-Club is still debated to this day.