December 7th, 1903. Orville and Wilbur Wright have made the first flight in a heavier-than-air craft. Since then, they have become known as the inventor of the airplane. However, some people argue against this claim, and it is known that many others of the era were close to the Wrights, if not ahead. So who invented the airplane? But more importantly, who deserves the credit?

…

Let’s begin with the Wright Brothers, Wilbur and Orville. Aged 36 and 32 respectively, the pair ran a bicycle shop in Ohio. At some point, they developed an interest in bird wings, and soon enough discovered the flight technique known as Wing Warping, which involves twisting the wings’ ends to enable turns. The brothers then paired this discovery with ther knowledge of box kites, which had excellent lift properties.

Beginning in October of 1900, the Wrights built and flew a series of test-gliders, proving that Wing Warping was, at least temporarily, a viable technique. After repeated refinement of their glider design, they arrived at the Wright Flyer III. The moment it took off on its maiden flight, the Flyer cemented itself into history as the first heavier-than-air powered aircraft, and the Wrights as its creators. They were heroes—pioneers of the ‘new frontier’. But there was a darker side.

Starting in 1906, the Wrights began filing an extensive series of patents on the Wright Flyer and on Wing Warping under the legal umbrella of the Wright Company, which was established to capitalize on the Wrights’ discovery. Due to their patent network, they often clashed with other burgeoning aviators and aviation firms. One notable man in this ‘patent war’ is Glenn Curtiss, who partook in the Wright Co. vs. Herring-Curtiss Co.

…

Glenn Curtiss, born May 21, 1878, was another foundational aviation pioneer. Less famous than the Wright Brothers, many still acknowledge his importance to the then-nascent aviation industry. Similarly to the Wrights, Curtiss began with bicycles. He then moved onto motorcycles, inventing lightweight combustion engines. He was then invited to join the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) by Alexander Graham Bell after Bell’s colleague Thomas Baldwin bought one of Curtiss’s engines for a prototype airplane. The AEA was a group of aerial experimentors and inventors hand-picked by Bell. Curtiss won the Scientific American Trophy for flying the AEA June Bug airplane over 1 kilometer.

…

Returning to the lawsuit, an honorable mention will be made for Matthew Boulton, inventor of the aileron. Instead of warping the wing ends, the aileron is a special hinged section that moves separate from the wing surface. When Curtiss utilised ailerons for a prototype, the Wrights initiated a lawsuit, Wright Co. vs. Herring-Curtiss Co. 

Judge John R. Hazel commented that Wing Warping or any other suchlike method was essential to airplane flight, rendering prior aircraft incapable of flying.

Now, whilst the comment yields no opinion on the case, it does reveal the attempted Wright monopoly on the aircraft as it places Wing Warping and all other methods into the same category, which was patented by the Wrights, despite all the means being considerably different. 

…

Back to Curtiss. Independent of the Wrights, in 1910 Curtiss’s aircraft was the first to land and take off from a warship deck. Curtiss was also a major supplier of aircraft engines during WWI, and his aircraft were produced in large numbers. In 1919, Curtiss’s NC-4 flying boat was the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean. So should Curtiss get the credit? He flew farther—built more aircraft—and established a full company that received government production orders. Should this elevate him beyond the Wrights? Before answering this question, let’s look at another early aviator, Louis Blériot.

…

Born in 1872, Cambrai, France, Louis Blériot was another important figure from early aviation. Like Curtiss, the patent war touched him too, though he had been developing his aircraft independently, and the case was thus dismissed by both French and German courts. Blériot started in the military, moving then to the automotive industry before amassing enough funds to support his private research into aviation. He started experimenting with gliders before progressing onto powered machines. In 1909, only 6 years after the Wrights’ world-famous flight and 10 years before Curtiss’s trans-Atlantic flight, one of Blériot’s aircraft crossed the English Channel. It was this achievement that earned him a place in aviation history. Blériot later established his own company and sold his aircraft throughout Europe. This, much like Curtiss, was a much more substantial feat than that of the Wrights’. So should he get the credit? Should he occupy the Wrights’ nook in history? After all, only the Wright Brothers flew Wright aircraft and all of Europe flew Blériot’s.

…

On a side note, it is important to examine another pioneer, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Although Zeppelin did not design airplanes, his work in lighter-than-air airship flight is still considered impactful enough to warrant his place in this work. 

Count Zeppelin was born in 1838, Konstanz, Germany. His first contact with aviation was when he served as a Union balloon observer in Minnesota, during the American Civil War. He then served in multiple military positions in the armies of France and Germany before retiring in 1890 and devoting his life to airship study.

Zeppelin’s first prototype, the LZ-1, flew in 1900. It was largely unsuccessful, a culmination of mechanical failures forcing it to land prematurely. It did, however, attract wealthy investors who began donating to further Zeppelin’s research. The government also took interest when the LZ-1 flew at its meager top speed of 24 miles per hour. The government ordered a fleet of such ‘Zeppelins’, with more than 100 of them serving Germany in WWI.  An airship airline, Delag, was established in 1909. However, Zeppelin died before his vision of trans-continental airship flight was achieved. It will be mentioned once more that Zeppelin did not participate in the heavier-than-air field, but in the lighter-than-air field, the ‘Zeppelins’ being supported by a large mass of hydrogen, which is lighter than air.

But the question remains: The LZ-1 flew over 3 years prior to the Wright’s renowned flight. He even took 5 passengers with him, compared to the Wrights’ one. But 6 years after the Wrights’ flight, an entire airline was established around his airships. So should he get any credit? Granted, he did not contribute to the discovery of the airplane, but still pioneered the concept of flight. So should he still get Second Place?

…

The final contender in this aerial contest is Otto Lilienthal. Like Zeppelin, he also didn’t work with powered aircraft. He worked instead with gliders, for which he is famed. (Another very honorable mention will go to Sir George Cayley, the ‘father of aviation’, but he is omitted as he worked more theoretically). Born 1848 in Anklam, Prussia, Lilienthal was trained as a mechanical engineer, and from early on he studied bird flight. He then wrote his seminal work, Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst (“Bird Flight as the Basis of Aviation”), which greatly influenced all who came after, including the Wright Brothers. Lilienthal’s gliders often resembled organic wings, as birds were what he studied. Lilienthal built 16 different known models, and completed approximately 2000 flights in them between the years 1891 and 1896, over 10 years before the Wrights’ celebrated flight. Unfortunately, Lilienthal’s gliders killed him, as he broke his back in a crash and died the next day.

But now the question must be asked. Was Otto Lilienthal more important than the Wright Brothers? Does he deserve their fame? After all, he flew before anybody and had proven man could fly. Is this enough to place him above the Wrights?

…

In the end, the field of aviation is so wide that to pin down one particular individual is nigh-impossible. What of the myriad other inventors and tinkerers, whose names have been forgotten? What about Sir George Cayley, one of the most foundational figures in early aviation, who was only mentioned in this work? What about those hundreds of startup companies—those two-man teams—those groups and clubs all trying to discover the mystery of flight?

To even attempt an answer to this question is pointless, and this essay does not aim to answer it. Instead, it aims to shine a light at all of the people—individuals—each with their own heart and soul—that made the dream of flight a reality.

…

It is here that I, the writer, choose to end this work, and leave you, the reader, with food for thought and contemplation.