The First automotive magazine, were the Wright Bros. the wrong Bros?

[clonelark]

http://didik.com/horseles/

1899 Four years before the Wright Brothers

[Jim B PEI]

Interesting history, and hints that history might have been re-written just a wee tiny bit, about the Wright Brothers being 'first' in flight, IF you care to dig into it. The Smithsonian is partly party to this too. Research the conditions imposed to get the Wright's airplane for museum purposes.<G> Mind you, I'm not taking anything away from the accomplishments of O & W Wright, against a backdrop of several different individuals and groups in a bunch of places around the world, on or before* their date with destiny. What could probably be said is that they had the first fully documented (in English) engine powered sustained flight, although there are a bunch of qualified footnotes out there, like this one. This was a compressed air motor, not an engine, with no on-board way to replenish the propulsion unit. Quite different from the Wright's machine, which (theoretically) could travel long** distances under its own power.
* Ha! Let them prove it.
** another footnote--how is 'long' defined?

[Lothar]

Note the letters "A" and "B" on that photo. I would gues that they indicate how far that plane flew! I don't see a propeller in that picture, either. Was compressed air supposed to push it along like a balloon that is losing air?

[55s]

I don't believe a compressed air motor qualifies as well.

Its kind of like Dr. Morton, who discovered that ether worked as an anesthetic. Many claimed that they had used it for years, yet he got the patent within 16 days. He died penniless, because others figured out ether was the secret ingredient and they didn't have to pay him.

[JBOYLE]

If you study the Wrights, what they're given credit for is not the first glider or even the first aircraft with an engine (Langley's Aerodrome had one but sank like a rock), but the first machine capable of powered controlled flight. It landed on a surface the same elevation (or higher) than its take off point.

The Wright aircraft of 1903 was fully controlable (via wing warping)...I don't see any control mechanism or surfaces on the aircraft in the photo. Without that, you can have a powered glider, but not an airplane.