Why wasn't Gustave Whitehead credited with "first flight" ahead of the Wrights?

[Carl Schwamberger]

...

At which point one has to wonder if there wasn’t something in the water “back-East” because that was in fact a very real “problem” with a lot of early 20th century technological innovation in that the “pioneers” often exhibited rather pathological “needs” to protect and profit from their ‘inventions’ to the point of very counterproductive results. Edison is a good example but Robert Goddard’s work is another and very much the attitude and outcome of the Wright brothers attempts to gain a “limited time” (10 years was a minimum they proposed) monopoly on any and all “powered and controlled” flight. They seriously demanded that any and all examples of “their” work that had been published or shared, (freely, by them at the time) be withdrawn and destroyed and that ALL means of ‘control’ (“warping of aero surfaces and “other” means as obvious to knowledgeable individuals” or literally ANY means of ‘control’ whether it derived from ‘warping’ or not) were their personal and private work and ALL means of such were covered by and inclusive of their existing patents.

They actually stopped development on the ‘flyer’ design in order to pursue legal efforts to stop anyone else from either developing or researching aircraft designs unless and until they ‘paid’ the Wrights for using their patents. They went as far as to pursue European courts to grant similar patent rights, (while granted limited patents the “monopoly” and general coverage patents were denied) while they aggressively pursued sanctions and legal penalties on ANY “flights” in the US. (To the point where European aviation pioneers stopped coming to the US because they were often ‘detained’ and/or their machines seized for “legal violations” of the Wright patents) While Curtiss was their main target in fact they went after everyone in the US who was even remotely trying to develop a “flying machine” and it very much effected early aviation efforts in the US.

...

There is a cultural artifact, the story of the 'cheated inventor' common in the US. Goodyear and Tesla are a couple of names this story is often applied to. The OP in this thread hints at this with Whitehead as the victim. I'm wondering how common this Cheated Inventor narrative was in the in the latter 19th Century and how influenced the Wrights were? Focus on personal gain is part of the Wrights motivation, part of that is a concern for losing their effort to actual theft, or alternately abuse by con artists and fraud.

 

[McPherson]

Richard Pearse. More that others later claimed that his flight (not usefully controlled) was before the Wrights'.

Kind of an interesting and tragic story.

Here is an attempt to replicate his machine.

Part 1.

Part 2.

One comment; darn that replica is HEAVY.

 

[phx1138]

Wouldn't they have gone to war even if no one invented heavier than air by that time? Wouldn't the inventors that Wrights suppressed sold planes to various combatant states?

Word.

You might, just might, have delayed the onset of trench war, which AIUI was provoked by airplanes making secret/hidden movement impossible. (And balloons might have anyhow, so...)

Other than that, no. Claims "no Wrights first means no WW1" is nonsense.

I was interested to learn about Weißkopf & Kress, tho.

Edit:

America's mistake was sharing what should have been a state secret with the world.

I'd say the mistake was in not charging a licence fee for use, the same way USG spends billions to develop new drugs, then just gives the research away.

Also, whatever else is true about the Wrights, unlike all the others before (& contemporary with) them, they did the math: built the models, tunnel-tested 'em, test-flew unmanned, then went to fly. For that alone, they deserve credit as first, 'cause that's how it's still done--the right way.

(Please don't ban me. )