Gustave Albin Whitehead (born Gustav Albin Weisskopf; 1 January 1874 – 10 October 1927) was an aviation pioneer who emigrated from Germany to the United States where he designed and built gliders, flying machines, and engines between 1897 and 1915. Controversy surrounds published accounts and Whitehead's own claims that he flew a powered machine successfully several times in 1901 and 1902, predating the first flights by the Wright Brothers in 1903.
Much of Whitehead's reputation rests on a newspaper article which was written as an eyewitness report and describes his powered and sustained flight in Connecticut on 14 August 1901. Over a hundred newspapers in the U.S. and around the world soon repeated information from the article. Several local newspapers also reported on other flight experiments that Whitehead made in 1901 and subsequent years.[1] Whitehead's aircraft designs and experiments were described or mentioned in Scientific American articles and a 1904 book about industrial progress. His public profile faded after about 1915, however, and he died in relative obscurity in 1927.
In the 1930s, a magazine article and book asserted that Whitehead had made powered flights in 1901–02,[2] and the book includes statements from people who said that they had seen various Whitehead flights decades earlier. These published accounts triggered debate among scholars, researchers, and aviation enthusiasts. Mainstream historians have consistently dismissed the Whitehead flight claims, which Orville Wright later described as 'mythical'.
Researchers have studied and attempted to copy Whitehead aircraft. Since the 1980s, enthusiasts in the U.S. and Germany have built and flown replicas of Whitehead's "Number 21" machine using modern engines and modern propellers, and with fundamental changes to the aircraft structure and control systems.
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^Gustave Whitehead Book FAQ Archived 20 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine Gustave Whitehead: "First in Flight". Retrieved 15 February 2016
^Randolph, Stella (1937). Lost Flights of Gustave Whitehead. Washington, DC: Places, Inc.
Gustave Albin Whitehead (born Gustav Albin Weisskopf; 1 January 1874 – 10 October 1927) was an aviation pioneer who emigrated from Germany to the United...
edition of Jane's All the World's Aircraft supported the claim of GustaveWhitehead. Claims by, or on behalf of, other pioneers such as Clément Ader have...
of flight. According to a book and newspaper story from the 1930s, GustaveWhitehead made a very early motorized flight of about half a mile in Pittsburgh...
Church Historic citywall Historic County Court Building GustaveWhitehead Museum GustaveWhitehead Memorial Museum of local history Leutershausen has restored...
December 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2014. GustaveWhitehead: An RAeS statement regarding claims that GustaveWhitehead successfully flew an aeroplane before...
aviation enthusiasts, particularly those who promote the legacy of GustaveWhitehead, have accused the Smithsonian of refusing to investigate claims of...
1955) was a wealthy aviation pioneer, who was an early financier of GustaveWhitehead, the contested first maker of a powered controlled flight before the...
and science fiction stories. In the late 1800s, American immigrant GustaveWhitehead designed aircraft with wheels and a gasoline-powered engine, including...
from Gretz-Armainvilliers, Ouest of Paris, France. August 14, 1901 – GustaveWhitehead from Leutershausen, Bavaria. May 15, 1902 – Lyman Gilmore – took off...
collapsible wings for folding away, such as the flying car designs by GustaveWhitehead. Since the 1960s flexible wings have dominated hang glider and ultralight...
Air Force Reserve (ret.) and Stella Randolph about aviation pioneer GustaveWhitehead. The book focuses on a 1948 agreement between the Smithsonian Institution...
Talpade in the Marutsakhā (1895), Clément Ader in the Avion III (1897), GustaveWhitehead in his No's. 21 and 22 aeroplanes (1901–1903), Richard Pearse in his...
1898: Wurlitzer builds the first coin-operated player piano. 1899: GustaveWhitehead, according to a witness who gave his report in 1934, made a very early...
January 1 Alexandros Hatzikyriakos, Greek admiral, politician (d. 1958) GustaveWhitehead, German-born aviation pioneer (d. 1927) January 4 – Josef Suk, Czech...
politician, 46th United States Secretary of the Navy (d. 1944) 1874 – GustaveWhitehead, German-American pilot and engineer (d. 1927) 1877 – Alexander von...
(Pomfret) Nathaniel Wheeler (Bridgeport) Dana White (Manchester) GustaveWhitehead (Bridgeport) Eli Whitney (New Haven) Oliver Fisher Winchester (New...
well but also became an aviation pioneer, and an early financier of GustaveWhitehead, the contested first maker of a powered controlled flight before the...
Alberto Santos-Dumont Clement Ader Du Temple Monoplane Richard Pearse GustaveWhitehead John Joseph Montgomery Vuia was born to ethnically Romanian parents...
winglet Ed White (1930–1967) – Apollo 1 fire victim on January 27, 1967 GustaveWhitehead (1874–1927) – aviation pioneer Frank Whittle (1907–1996) – pioneer...
.F. Library of Congress 76-103950. http://www.unmuseum.org/gustave.htm "GustaveWhitehead, a poor, German immigrant" "The Wright brothers' roots in the...
1927 – GustaveWhitehead, German-American pilot and engineer (b. 1874) 1930 – Adolf Engler, German botanist and academic (b. 1844) 1935 – Gustave Loiseau...
Prague-born German-speaking writer Gustav Weißkopf, birthname of GustaveWhitehead (1874–1927), aviation pioneer Kim Weiskopf (1947–2009), American television...
water taxis -- the 23 passenger Lewis H. Latimer and the 18 passenger GustaveWhitehead -- will run frequently from the fishing pier on Seaview Avenue to...
João Marques de Oliveira, Portuguese painter (b. 1853) October 10 – GustaveWhitehead, German-born aviation pioneer (b. 1874) October 11 – Miguel R. Dávila...
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