Not according to Wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pearse
Go ahead and edit it if you want ...
No need to edit because this is what Wiki states:
“…According to witness statements given many years afterward, Pearse flew and landed a powered heavier-than-air machine on 31 March 1903,[1]
some
nine months before the Wright brothers flew their aircraft. …
List of witnessed flights:
31 March 1903 - First powered flight. Estimated distance around 350 yards in a straight line, barely controlled.
March ? 1903 - A distance of only about 150 yards.
2 May 1903 - Distance unknown: the aircraft ended up in a gorse hedge 15 ft (4.6 m) off the ground.
11 May 1903 - Pearse took off along the side of the Opihi River, turned left to fly over the 30' tall river-bank, then turned right to fly parallel to the middle of the river. After flying nearly 1,000 yards, his engine began to overheat and lost power, thus forcing a landing in the almost dry riverbed. …”
Santo Dumont was an exceptionally skilled pilot having flown lighter-than-air, motor-powered, aircraft for years, including flying around the Eiffel tower and giving the king of Morocco a "joyride" after he paid for large hanger for powered, cigar-shaped, blimps in France. His canard design /steering is inherently unstable and it took skill to fly it. At least one, I think two, of the three replicas build and flown for the 100 year celebration in Brazil went unstable and crashed. Pearse was not as skilled and often crashed until he learned how to fly, the hard way.
F-X What does this have to do with electric cars? Answer: Only example of earlier efforts to introduce new transportation systems.