Gustave Whitehead
| Gustave Whitehead | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Full name | Gustave Albin Whitehead |
| Born |
1 January 1874 Leutershausen, Bavaria |
| Died | 10 October 1927 (aged 53) Bridgeport, Connecticut |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Nationality | German |
| Spouse | Louise Tuba Whitehead |
| Aviation career | |
| Known for | Reported flights 1901–1902 |
| First flight | 14 August 1901 (disputed) |
Gustave Albin Whitehead (born Gustav Albin Weisskopf 1 January 1874 – 10 October 1927) was an aviation pioneer who emigrated from Germany to the United States where he designed and built gliders, flying machines and engines between 1897 and 1915. Controversy surrounds published accounts and Whitehead's own claims that he flew a powered machine successfully several times in 1901 and 1902, predating the first flights by the Wright Brothers in 1903.
Much of Whitehead's reputation rests on a newspaper article which was written as an eyewitness report and described a powered and sustained flight by Whitehead in Connecticut on 14 August 1901. Dozens of newspapers in the U.S. and around the world soon repeated information from the article. Several local newspapers also reported on this and other flight experiments that Whitehead purportedly made in 1901 and subsequent years. Whitehead's aircraft designs and experiments were described or mentioned in contemporary Scientific American magazine articles and a 1904 book about industrial progress. His public profile faded after about 1915 and he died in relative obscurity in 1927.
In the 1930s a magazine article and book asserted that Whitehead had made powered flights in 1901–1902. The book included statements from people who said they had seen various Whitehead flights decades earlier. The book and article triggered debate among scholars, researchers, aviation enthusiasts and Orville Wright whether Whitehead was first in powered flight. Mainstream historians dismissed the Whitehead flight claims. Further independent research, including books in 1966, 1978 and 2015, supported the claims.
No photograph showing Whitehead making a powered controlled flight is known to exist, although reports in the early 1900s said such photos were publicly displayed. Researchers have studied and attempted to copy Whitehead aircraft. Since the 1980s, enthusiasts in the U.S. and Germany have built and flown versions of Whitehead's "Number 21" machine using modern engines and propellers.
The Smithsonian Institution has repeatedly dismissed claims that Whitehead made powered flights before the Wrights. The 1978 book History by Contract argued that the Smithsonian compromised its objectivity when it signed a 1948 agreement with the estate of Orville Wright requiring the Institution to recognize the 1903 Wright Flyer as the first aircraft to make a manned, powered, controlled flight or forfeit possession of the aircraft.
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