Do you care about whether the Wright brothers were the first to perform powered flight?

In My Humble Opinion
62

And there were roads, railroads and interurbans passing through that prairie along with a mill and houses nearby. It would be impossible not to notice what at the time would have been a UFO flying around.

If any discussion ever comes up about who was the first in powered flight I end it by narrowing down to who was first in controlled 3 axis flight. If someone bolted a motor and propeller to a barn door and got it off the ground then it would fall into the category of an interesting foot note assuming there is documentation to back it up…

I would also add that while the Wright Brothers were first to figure out 3 axis control there was a tremendous amount of activity in France at the same time and they did a better job of advancing aviation from that point on. It was the place to be for enthusiasts from around the world. The Blériot XI set the pattern for planes for decades to follow.

63

I’m fine giving credit to the Wright Brothers. It’s kinda like the car - many inventors, some of them definitive, but all depending upon your definition of the words involved.

64

I’m a migrant with American roots :slight_smile: and one of the things that makes Australians better than other people, doesn’t even need to stealth-brag about, is that we don’t think we’re better than other people…

So we don’t need to brag about Richard Pearce or Lawrence Hargrave*.

But contributing to that feeling, yes. Most Australians know, deep in their bowels, that Australia is an unimportant country at the far end of the earth, and if we had invented flight, people would still be saying ‘I thought it was like peanut butter’ and 'You have to be careful down-under: they do heavier than air flight ".

*If Pearce invented flight, how come Australia hasn’t claimed him as an Australian? (That’s a joke folks. For locals…).
Lawerence Hargrave did, and reported, some of the investigations that led to the Wright Brothers and other concurrent developments. He’s like one of those guys who didn’t get the Nobel Prize.