Still look at them today they dropped the ball. @ThePrototype @WarHawk95

It's wasn't the designs, just the engines held them back. So designed were often underpowered. Give the French a large amount of resources and they could design a masterpiece. On of their fighters had a 700hp engine yet it could keep up and out manuver a 109 @Jfalix

@Jfalix what's your problem with the French ?

The first man to fly was Clément ADER, un 1890, with his Éole. Then Weißkopf flew in 1901, and the Wright possibly flew in 1903. But their famous "picture" of the Flyer is in fact much later. So there's no proof that they flew in 1903.

Doesn’t matter the French completely failed when it came to aeronautical design after WWI

Yes, but they stuck to the same basic design which hindered them, a year later the French were well past them :) @Jfalix

All arguments aside they were the first to continually develop on their working design and that’s why we credit them with the achievement. Also it was the first controlled flight.

Ik it’s a great day in the aviation community.@ThePrototype

@ThePrototype agreed

This should be the page the Ader Avion was more advanced in some aspects than the Wright flyer in my opinion

@ThePrototype nah, I literally just googled it

Would you like a link? The controls were also the same on the Ader Éole as well @ThePilotDude

@ThePrototype interesting, I hadn't heard that the Avion III had controls! (granted, I haven't read much on it) But hand cranks, geez...

Ader had a method of rolling, yawing and pitching the plane, but they were just too slow due to the hand cranks. @ThePilotDude

Avion III had controls. It just he was only able to fly it once. But then again it didn't help he had hand cranks to control the plane, it made it basically incontrollabe due to the slow nature of the hand cranks. Also the controls are viable but only effective if activated quickly: @ThePilotDude

At least we can agree on that, it was a marvel of engineering. But I don't think the question of who flew first will ever be answered.... @Chancey21

@ThePrototype The Avion III wasn't controllable, so it doesn't count
Whitehead had no photographs of his craft in flight, no printed (immediate) firsthand accounts, only supposed witnesses claiming, 30 years later, that they remember the craft being airborne. Records also state that no one ever even sat in Whitehead's machine, and it was simply pulled along until it made a short straight hop a few feet above the ground, essentially a powered kite. No one was aboard, and it could only be controlled by pitch. This can be compared to Langley's mini Aerodrome, which flew for a long distance (idk how long) above the Potomac River before running out of fuel and crashing. Whitehead made a significant contribution to aviation, but usurping the Wright Brothers' 1903 flight for his unmanned hops is ridiculous.

Bleroit add the first truly useful and efficient airplane, and it resembles the planes of today @ThePrototype

But honestly I don’t really think it matters @ThePrototype

But it was still basically the same design, the design brief to be very stable with modifications@ThePrototype

It wasn't until 1904 and 1905 they had a reliable plane @Chancey21

The Wright flyer of 1903 was basically a straight shot, plus in wind tunnel tests it was shown to be basically unflyable. @Chancey21

Oof. Then Wright’s for sure @ThePrototype

He says it was, but it is questionable. He said he shifted his weight to bank the plane. But it had a normal elevator @Chancey21

Was the “no 21” controllable? @ThePrototype