Connecticut Names Gustave Whitehead First in Flight

Stephen Pope

Thursday, June 13, 2013 at 09:31 PM ET

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** Gustave Whitehead**

Key Takeaways:

Connecticut legislators passed a bill aiming to recognize Gustave Whitehead, rather than the Wright Brothers, as the first to achieve powered flight, specifically north of the Tappan Zee Bridge.
This decision is fueled by recently resurfaced evidence, including a lithograph and an eyewitness account, suggesting Whitehead flew a plane in 1901, two years prior to the Wrights' documented flight, a claim now supported by *Jane's All the World's Aircraft*.
The legislation challenges the widely accepted historical narrative of aviation's origins and faces strong opposition from institutions like the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum and the state of North Carolina.

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It’s a debate that could ignite a feud between the North and South. This week Connecticut legislators passed a bill that includes a paragraph buried within its text stating that Gustave Whitehead and not the Wright Brothers should be recognized as the first to fly — at least north of the Tappan Zee Bridge.

North Carolina already claims Kitty Hawk as the rightful birthplace of aviation, and most historians recognize Orville and Wilbur’s famous feat as being the first manned powered, heavier-than-air flight.