The (highly probable) TRUTH ABOUT “FIRST FLIGHT”
Summary:
Santos-Dumont was first to fly, but by “powered kite,” quite unrelated to modern aviation. The Wright brothers are the true fathers of modern aviation, but not the first to fly. They deserve more credit as "systematic scientists", pioneers in research, than Edison who, like Santos-Dumont had good financial connections and the patience to exhaustively try (with not much understanding) until a solution was found empirically. The Wright brothers, were first to understand and try to apply the airfoil wing used by all modern planes. They understood mathematically why it produces lift, built what may be the worlds first wind tunnel to test various designs, and were such careful investigators that they discovered errors in the published data for compressibility of air. Unfortunately for them, the motor available to them had only 20% of the power of Santos-Dumont’s motor so their plane was (and in reproduction 100 years later, even with modern fuel) incapable of flight.
I call Santos-Dumont’s flight, 23 October 1906 from level Paris field, a “powered kite” because the "14-Bis," as that plane was called, or "14th repetition" in English (“Bis” is Portuguese for “repetition") had no airfoils,* only many flat silk sheets stretched over a bamboo structure, which were slightly inclined, especially the square “box kite” extended out in front. As the motor drove the plane thru the air, the air was given some downward momentum when passing thru these box kite like passage ways. The reaction forces on the plane required to send the air downward were slightly greater than the weight of the plane, so it flew.
Santos-Dumont, had earlier been a pioneer in controlled balloon flight, using a motor and a cigar-shaped balloon to fly against the wind. He flew circles over Paris many times. Like the Wright brothers, but few others, he fully appreciated the need for a control system. Most other early attempts at flight quickly crashed as the developers gave little thought to control. It is highly probable that his years of experience with powered balloon flight gave Santos-Dumont a practical appreciation of the control requirements, rather than the deeper understanding of the control problem, the Wright brothers developed in their laboratory. (They invented, the “wing warping” control system, but of course that is not how modern planes maintain level flight.)
Santos-Dumont’s first name, rarely used, was Alberto, the same as the then Prince of Monaco, who was very interested in all things new. Prince Alberto, invited Santos-Dumont to Monaco, and he was pleased to accept. He preferred flying his powered Balloon, (called No. 6), over the Bay of Monaco instead of the trees and building of Paris. He took the Prince for a ride in No. 6, but for reasons unknown (probably inadequate supply of gas) the cigar shaped balloon was not fully inflated / entirely rigid / and they soon gently crashed on the beach. The still running motor cut some of the suspension cords and when restored, the balloon was called No.7. None the less Prince Alberto was thrilled, and agreed to finance the construction of more balloons (perhaps even the 14-Bis ?) and a hanger for them in Paris. If both had not been named, Alberto, perhaps the Wright brothers would have had more time to get a better motor and be the first to fly, but that was not the case. (Curtis, a motor bike enthusiast, had one and around 1910 the short lived Curtis-Wright airplane company was formed. The Wrights did fly, but shortly after Santos-Dumont had done so before thousands in Paris who watched the 14-Bis fly at average speed of 41 mph.)
The claimed first flight at Kitty Hawk was 31 feet long and began before the plane had reached full speed, running down the inclined rails on a slopping sand dune. Five people claim to have seen it lift off the rails and “fly.” What surely happened is a strong gust of wind caught the light weight wings and lifted plane briefly off the ground. Because the plane had wing warping control, the pilot was able to keep it reasonably level during this air-born period. He avoided crashing and safely landed at a lower elevation than the take-off point. This can hardly be called "flight." The plane and it reproduction 100 years later is incapable of flight with the original design motor, even though the reproduction used modern fuel. In contrast four reproduction of the 14-Bis have been built, one given as a present to France, and many have watched some of the others fly in Brazil.
Perhaps if the Wright brothers, had been auto-mechanics, instead of bicycle-mechanics, or if the first name of Santos-Dumont had not been Alberto, same as the Prince’s, then the honor of “first flight” would belong to the Wright brothers, but it does not.
The Wright brother’s accomplishments, are IMHO, much more important that being first to fly. They are the true founders of modern aviation, discovering and understanding how lift can be achieved with an airfoil, which Santos-Dumont did not. Significant as that is, that is not their major contribution to the modern world. Unlike Edison, practical trial and error inventor, or Henry Ford, clever developer of efficient production procedures, they developed the scientific research methodology for application to practical problems, instead of the pursuit of academic knowledge. They did not invent the modern scientific research method, (the union of mathematical understanding applied to laboratory results) but were among the first to very directly and intentionally transformed the world with it. (Certainly others, such as the French and German chemists, etc. also indirectly transformed the world earlier.) Perhaps, Alfred Noble, also did so intentionally and directly in 1866. Dynamite certainly “transformed the world” and was invented for the practical purpose of making nitro-glycerin more safe to handle, not as academic research; however, it and he did not create any new aspect of the world as the Wright Brothers did with the foundation of aviation.
First to fly? -No, Great world-transforming, self-taught, scientists. -Yes! That is how the Wrights should be remembered.
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*This may not be entirely true as the stretched silk did bend the bamboo, but as far as I have been able to discover, any airfoils that may have existed, were at best imperially discovered to be useful, if their contribution to lift was even recognized. Santos-Dumont, as far as I have been able to discover with little real effort, was more like Edison, a "cut and try" man, not a systematic scientist with laboratory research, notebooks and mathematical analysis, as the Wright brothers were. (Edison certainly had labs and notebooks, but little use for math and did not even understand how Tesla's AC motors worked.)