Whitehead Video

Greg's defense of the Wrights is apparently quite necessary given the bad internet information floating around. His passion for this has nothing to do with USA patriotism at all. It is simply fair and justified. As Greg emphasizes, the brothers systematically solved one fundamental problem after another through empirical experimentation, and most importantly, they wrote down their process in letters and journals on nearly a daily basis. The Wrights stayed years ahead of anyone else until about 1909 or so. I'm off to Dayton later this month to visit Huffman Prairie, where they perfected their invention in 1904-1905. I'm really excited to see their 1905 Flyer III. The 1905 model is their most elegant early machine, and considerably more controllable than the 1903 Flyer and 1904 Flyer II. With Flyer III, they managed to increase horsepower to about 21, and elongated the design by extending the rudder and elevator further away from the wings. This dampened the controls a bit, which had been too touchy, thus enhancing stability. They also added two vertical vanes between the elevators, which helped lessen unintentional sideslip. Flyer III could do figure 8s, stay aloft until the fuel ran out (39 minutes covering 24 miles on a three-gallon tank), and take off & land consistently without mishap. The folks at Carillon Historical Park where Flyer III is housed call it "the world's first practical airplane," and it's hard to argue with that assessment. Here's a very nice information page all about Flyer III: https://www.wright-brothers.org/Information_Desk/Just_the_Facts/Airplanes/Flyer_III.htm

Maybe, but not pre-Wright Brother's submarines. Even so, the challenge is specific to aviation as adverse yaw is an aviation term. I don't think it's used in the nautical world.

adverse yaw idea, submarines roll the opposite of the turn when submerged and at high speed. If anyone knows why, please tell me. Maybe like inertia coupling?

or I can just slow down and make it one message!

@ papa hotel1: you know you can just edit comments instead of double- or triple-posting right? Just click the pencil icon. Cheers ;) Edit: besides that, thanks for the video Greg. I'll be extremely surprised if any verifiable claims to the contrary are forthcoming.

Misguided patriotism is some of it: A German did it! A Franco-Brazilian did it! In the case of Jatho, a lot of it was Nazi propaganda, but the general-aviation terminal at Hannover airport is still named after him. Simple contrarianism may be another part, doubting "established truths": "The ruling elite believes it, so it's probably a lie, and the truth was suppressed!"

I don't really understand what drives people down these rabbit holes. It's like people still believing the earth is flat. The Wright flyer is a wonder to behold, its got all the bells and whistles in the right places and looks the business. It is so disrespectful to even suggest they did not invent the aeroplane. Sure a lot of people were having a lash but no one was even within a bulls roar of controlled powered flight. Truly an extraordinary achievement.

youtube won't let me comment, an additional proof point of Wright's is flying a figure eight, the French admitted Wright was first when they flew the eight

As a Riddle grad I have had the Whitehead argument hundreds of times, this is best clarity on the answer

soph·ist·ry /ˈsäfəstrē,ˈsōfəstrē/ the use of fallacious arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving.

Greg, here is my new favorite word, fits your Whitehead video