Hey, Brazil, that ain't Wright: the truth about who was first in flight


 Want to go?

WHAT: Carillon Historical Park

WHERE: 1000 Carillon Blvd., Dayton

HOURS: 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Saturday; noon to 5 p.m., Sunday.

COST: $8 per adult; $7 per senior; $5 per child (3 –17). Children under 3 and Dayton History members, free.

INFO: Daytonhistory.org or 937-293-2841.

The start of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games cast Dayton and its most famous brothers in a dim light.
Across the world, 3 billion people on Friday watched the Rio Opening Ceremony in which Brazil took credit for being first in powered flight. A segment featured a replica of Brazilian aristoocrat Alberto Santos-Dumont’s powered aircraft, a biplane called the 14 Bis. (No. 14). Santos-Dumont publicly flew the plane 197 feet in Paris on Oct. 23, 1906.

>> RELATED: Brazil claims to be first in flight

On Dec. 17, 1903 – nearly three years earlier – Orville Wright flew for 12 seconds the Wright Flyer I 120 feet over the dunes of Kitty Hawk in North Carolina.
Between the two of them, the Wright brothers flew the plane two more times that day for a total distance of 852 feet and 59 seconds in the air. They came home to Dayton to refine their invention.
In regards to the claim that Santos-Dumont was the world's first powered aircraft pilot, “we’re still living with the consequences of historical circumstances,” said Tim Gaffney, communications director for the National Aviation Heritage Alliance. “In 1904 (the Wright brothers) continued their experiments. In 1905, they could fly the Wright Flyer III literally until it ran out of fuel. On Oct. 5, (1905), Wilbur flew over Huffman Prairie for a distance of about 25 miles and landed when the gas ran out.”
What we saw at the Olympic Opening was an aircraft of Santos-Dumont style that had been equipped with more modern apparatuses to fly,” said Brady Kress, president and CEO of Dayton History. “It's a beautiful machine to watch fly.”

"The biggest thing about Santos-Dumont was that he was a showman," Kress added. "The crowds in France were much larger than the crowds watching the Wright Brothers fly at Huffman Prairie."

In the Wrights' early years of flying, they didn't focus on showmanship, but rather concentrated their efforts on patenting their invention.
Alberto Santos-Dumont is a huge national hero in Brazil, and one reason people don’t believe the Wright Brothers flew first is because they’re not taught about the Wright Brothers in Brazil,” Gaffney said.

Gaffney recalled visiting the Brazilian air force academy in 2007 and talking to the cadets. "Either they hadn't heard of the Wright brothers or were only dimly aware of them," Gaffney said. "The facts haven't caught up with them." 

At Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, visitors can see the original 1905 Wright Flyer III, known as “the world's first practical plane.”
It's the only plane designated as a historical landmark,” Kress said. “This is the first one the Wrights could dependably land and keep in the air as long as they had fuel and have complete command of.”

It is that 1905 Wright Flyer III that Academy Award-winning actor/director Tom Hanks came to see at Carillon during his visit on April 18. Hanks is collaborating with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough on an HBO mini series about the Wright brothers.

>> RELATED: Local groups united to impress Hanks about local history

Additionally, the 1903 Wright Flyer that Wilbur Wright flew over Kitty Hawk is on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.
Orville Wright rebuilt the plane for display at the Smithsonian. “The 1903 Wright Flyer is made up of about 60 percent original material,” Kress said. “This one (at Carillon) is closer to 80 percent.”

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