Katahu does seem to have some rigid ideas. LOL

I would point out that it is obviously not "easy to make gliders" unless you know how to do it. Many tried & failed over 100s of years, some sacrificing their own lives in the process. I suggest that with the efforts going on around the world in the early 20th century - powered flight was bound to happen, sooner rather than later. All credit to the Wright Brothers for being the first to officially do so but please never forget the countless other pioneers without whom it would not have been possible. I believe that was the reason for Bones posting this topic in the first place. Well done Bones.

I agree with Pippin.

Meanwhile I owe Woody an apology.http://www.flight100.org/history/uk.html
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And now its my turn...after all the dust settled on that blustery morning in 1903, there was one more thing to do for the Wrights and its the most overlooked bit of all they did.........there were many claims of being the first to fly in many different locations around this period, but the one thing that sets Wilbur and Orville apart is this....they went and once again, got out pen and paper and wrote it down.

THEY DOCUMENTED IT ALL WITH WITNESSES, WHERE POSSIBLE !

Thats the reason we know so much about their endeavors.......so much for Gustave Whitehead......someone besides me must know of his name......?

To me, one of the most astonishing facts is not that humans invented flight.  I think that was an inevitability.  The thing that I think most shows the human spirit is the fact that in only 66 years we went from our first official powered flight to landing a man on the moon.  Somewhere, at that time, there was a person alive who saw us go from no airplanes to landing on another heavenly body.

Neil Armstrong (whom my son is named after) said "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."  He did not say Americans, he said 'mankind'  The plaque that they left at Tranquility Base on the side of the lunar lander said "Here men from the planet Earth set foot on the Moon, July 1969 A.D.  We came in peace for all mankind"  It does not say 'men from the United States.'  It says 'men from Earth'

Flight was going to happen eventually and if the US hadn't done it first then it really was going to be the Brits, French, Germans, Aussies or even the Iraqis.  But that one small bit of world-sense, that altruism, that one bit of not showing arrogance when we could have claimed our own superiority forever has given me hope for the human race many times when we seem like we are going to destroy ourselves.  When wars happen, or I hear of yet another genocide occurring, or a terrorist attack killing children in Isreal or Iraq, I think of that often and it does seem like there is a bit of hope.

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Hagar, you should have learnt by now that you shouldn't doubt what I say. Especially when i've just come from watching a telly program about the subject.