murjax wrote on Jan 15^th, 2007 at 11:51am:

"I think". That's the whole point & we simply don't know. Whitehead apparently never kept much in the way of accurate records. I've read that he did not consider his efforts a success & was not interested in claiming any credit. All he wanted to do was fly & anyone that did see him do it first-hand is probably long dead by now.

The Wright Brothers were businessmen & knew the value of keeping accurate records but even with photos they had problems convincing the authorities & public of their success. The original Flyer was wrecked on that day after four successful flights & would never fly again. They made no further flights until 1904 with the Flyer II & the invited reporters had strict instructions that no photos be taken. I'm sure the reason for this was to protect their patent rights which had still not been granted. They made no flights at all in 1906 and 1907.

PS. http://gustavewhitehead.org/

That was a second plane, thus could have been after the Wright Brothers.

But, we all know that a lot of aviatiors were bizzy in those days, all around the world, so it wouldnt surprise me if a whole lot more people managed to get themselves flying.