Before The Wright Brothers: French “Batwing” Plane

By Alex in Auto & Transportation, Pictures on Aug 14, 2007 at 2:27 pm

The Wright brothers were the first people to fly, right? Well, according to this excellent article at our pal mental_floss, that may not be quite true. For example:

French inventor Clément Ader distinguished himself as the first to develop stereo sound, among his many engineering innovations. He was the first to achieve self-propelled flight, with an batwing aircraft powered by a steam engine. His first flight was around 50 meters, on October 9, 1890, a full 13 years before the Wright Brothers! He then designed a better flying machine that reportedly flew 200 yards in 1892. A public demonstration in 1897 apparently ended badly, and Ader lost his Department of War funding.

Link

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Felipe Venancio Alves
Aug 14th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Everyone knows that the first flight was performed by Santos Dumont.
Miss Cellania
Aug 14th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
I always appreciate it when Alex thinks something I’ve written is worth including on Neatorama, but…

You’re not going to believe this, but just today at my site, I talk about how embarrassing it is to spend so much time editing a story, then to see the ONE typo I overlooked being used as a blockquote somewhere else. I have corrected “an batwing” at Mental Floss already, but quotes are forever.
Kct
Aug 14th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
I think that in fact you really want to say “Santos Dumont”.
Wright Brothers just made bikes!
Ali S.
Aug 14th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Batman’s ancestor were at work on it all along.
Chris
Aug 15th, 2007 at 12:08 am
The first big jump, yes, but he was far fom flying. The Wright bros’ work on aerodynamics and the propeller made the difference.
Clark
Aug 15th, 2007 at 11:57 am
In my considerations, I think that Wright Brothers that took a first big jump. They used up to a catapult for that!
Santos Dumont was a big man! Brazilians, my Congratulations.
munky
Aug 15th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
I must stand up for Richard Pearse, a New Zealander who achieved powered flight nine months before the Wright Brothers.
There is a good article about him at Wikipedia ((http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pearse)).
It’s a shame he’s not more recognised as his thinking about aeroplane engineering and design was years ahead of his contemporaries (ailerons instead of wing-warping, forward mounted ‘tractor’ propeller, monoplane design with rear mounted stabiliser and elevator, the list goes on)
The only thing Pearse seems to have lacked is the showman’s ability to sell himself…
DB
Aug 20th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
A lot of the examples on the mental_floss page refer to devices that took off from a ramp or hill of some sort, which is why they are disqualified as “flight.” Basically, like gliders.

Also, in response to some of the potential other flights people have listed, I think the Wright Brothers were very lucky to have a small crowd watching them, as well as a photographer.

As a Daytonian I felt the need to share all this. =)
garlic
Sep 21st, 2007 at 9:31 pm
Well in time Richard Pearce might get recognition . I have just seen screened on TV an old film that was just discovered that shows Richard Pearce taking of and crashing (its seems he swerved ) to miss the camera man . There is also some one with a newspaper in his back pocket in the film . They digital enlarged the news paper , I cant record the exact date , but it was a march newspaper 1903 . The film has been sent to the Smithsonian for verification .
garlic
Sep 21st, 2007 at 9:36 pm
For some reason the world “old film ” in my previous post has been highlighted ? I see its an advertisement it has nothing to do with my post
Alex
Sep 21st, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Garlic – the double underline is an automatically generated Kontera text ad.

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