The biggest controversy surrounding the Wright brothers is whether they
were actually the first to fly. I gather New Zealand has a prior claim
with Richard Pearse.
http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/pearse1.html
http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/pearse.html
But claims of 'first' are always dubious. We all stand on the shoulders
of our predecessors. Interestingly, nobody seemed to doubt him. Not so
much of the snake oil suspicion in NZ I guess - a particularly sad form
of Pathological Scepticism.
dave
On Wednesday, January 12, 2005, at 06:47 AM, Jed Rothwell wrote:
Item 23 in this newsletter, Pathological Skepticism by Bill Beaty,
is incorrect about the nature and the chronology of the controversy
between the Smithsonian and the Wright brothers. Langley himself had
nothing to do with it. As far as I know, he accepted the Wright's
claims. He died in 1906, long before the controversy erupted, and two
years before the mainstream believed the Wright's claims.
The controversy was caused by Langley's successors, especially
Walcott, by Glen Curtiss (a commercial rival who used Langley's work
to try to break the patent), and by A. G. Bell. Bell awarded the first
Langley Medal to the Wrights in 1910, but in his speech he belittled
their accomplishments, making it seem as if they were merely students
of Langley. Bell was a great man but this was an ugly incident.
In my opinion, Langley did not contribute much to the progress of
aviation.
- Jed
