Claims to the first powered flight

Several aviators have claimed to be the first to fly a powered aeroplane. Claims that have received significant attention include:

In judging these claims, the generally accepted requirements are for sustained powered and controlled flight. In 1890 Ader had made a brief uncontrolled and unsustained "hop" in his Éole, but such a hop is not regarded as true flight. The ability to take off unaided is also sometimes regarded as necessary. The air historian Charles Gibbs-Smith has said that, "The criteria of powered flight must remain to some extent a matter of opinion."

Much controversy has surrounded these claims. It is most widely held today that the Wright Brothers were the first to fly successfully. Brazil regards Santos-Dumont as the first successful aviator because the Wright Flyer took off from a rail and, after 1903, used a catapult. An editorial in the influential Jane's All the World's Aircraft 2013 edition supported Whitehead.

Some notable powered hops were made before the problem of powered fight was finally solved.

In 1874 Félix du Temple built a steam-powered aeroplane which took off from a ramp with a sailor on board and remained airborne for a short distance. This has sometimes been claimed as the first powered flight in history but the claim is generally rejected because takeoff was gravity-assisted and flight was not sustained. It is however credited as the first powered take-off in history.

Ten years later in 1884 the Russian Alexander F. Mozhaiski achieved similar success, launching his craft from a ramp and remaining airborne for 30 m (98 ft). The claim that this was a sustained flight has not been taken seriously outside Russia.

Clément Ader's Éole of 1890 was a bat-winged tractor monoplane which achieved a brief, uncontrolled hop, becoming the first heavier-than-air machine in history to take off from level ground under its own power. However his hop is not regarded as true flight because it was neither sustained nor controlled. Ader would later make a false claim of a more extended flight.

In 1896, Samuel Pierpont Langley, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, had successful flights with several unpiloted models, and his Number 6 model flew more than 5,000 feet (1,500 m). From these successes, in 1898 Langley received grants from the War Department for $50,000 and an additional $20,000 from the Smithsonian, to attempt development of a piloted version.

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