(At Least) 100 Years Of Powered Human Flight

Rogue-Lion.com writes "Take a time out to remember the accomplishments of two bicycle shop owners who changed the world immeasurably, 100 years ago today. The Telegraph is running a story about a recreation of the Wright's (and world's) first heavier-than-air powered flight. President Bush will be in attendance at the event." Setting aside even more exotic theories, rod writes with an alternative point of view: namely, that man's first flight took place in New Zealand, on March 31, 1902. "I admire the U.S.A and the Wright brothers,but there are facts to consider today, 17/12/03, on the centenary of Kitty Hawk." Update: 12/17 13:44 GMT by T : Or was it a Brazillian invention? (Thanks, Anderson Silva.)

Comments

Google

[arnoroefs2000]

Make sure you check out the Google logo!

Re:No launch mechanism

[Gordonjcp]

Well yeah. Perhaps other people had attained powered flight before, but the Wright brothers were the ones that could manage it more than once. As I said, replicas of their aircraft have flown since, so it seems likely that the original flew as described.

Re:War

[Aardpig]

Any follow ups available? Did any country actually express an interest?

To quote again from the Guardian article:

The US government bought it for $30,000, and started test bombing in 1910. The aeroplane was conceived, designed, tested, developed and sold, in other words, not as a vehicle for tourism, but as an instrument of destruction.

In November 1911, eight years after the first flight, the Italian army carried out the first bombing raid, on a settlement outside Tripoli. Then as now, aerial bombardment was seen as a means of civilising uncooperative peoples.