Whitehead Or The Wrights:

Who Flew First?

BRIDGEPORT — The Barnum Museum will host a presentation by Andrew “Andy” Kosch on Thursday, August 14, on the contentious topic of whether Gustave Albin Whitehead (1874–1927) beat the Wright brothers in accomplishing the first controlled, sustained airplane flight. August 14 also marks the 106th anniversary of Whitehead’s “Flight Number 21” in Fairfield. The talk will begin at 6 pm.

Mr Kosch is the director of the Gustave Albin Whitehead Replica Team, which in 1986 along with many volunteers and the guidance of Bill Wargo, master model plane builder, built and successfully flew a replica of Whitehead’s original plane, Flight Number 21. The effort was funded by a $10,000 grant from Kaye Williams, owner of Captain’s Cove Seaport, where the plane was built and flown. There was also a replica built of Flight Number 21 in Germany and that plane also flew successfully.

Mainstream historians do not consider the Whitehead claim a credible one, noting the lack of verifiable documentation, reliable eyewitnesses, and the fact that an aircraft that he built in 1908 failed to fly. As for the flights of the replicas, they note that there are no detailed plans that survived the aviation pioneer, and that the reconstructions are based on photographs of his creations and used engines more powerful and props of better design than those available in the early 1900s.

Still, the stories of Whitehead getting off the ground years before the Wright Brothers persist. Gustave Whitehead was born Gustav Weikopf in 1874 in Bavaria. In 1895, Whitehead immigrated to the United States, and moved to Bridgeport in 1900. He had become interested in gliders in Germany and it was in the US that he built them for the Aeronautical Club of Boston.

The flight in dispute supposedly took place on August 14, 1901, in Fairfield. This flight No. 21 was said to have flown for 800 meters. Whitehead supporters also claim that he flew his airplane during the early 1900s in Bridgeport, Fairfield, and Stratford.

Visuals of the plane and replicas will be seen during the presentation, along with a timeline, taken from the book Gustav Weikopf: Ich Flog vor den Wrights (Gustave Weikopf: I Fly Before the Wrights).

Although the museum usually closes at 4:30 on Thursdays, it will remain open until 6 pm next Thursday so that those who would like to visit the Barnum prior to Mr Kosch’s lecture may do so. Admission to the lecture is included in museum admission: $7 for adults, $5 for seniors and college students, and $4 for ages 4-17 (the program is not recommended for ages 8 and under, however).

The Barnum Museum, at 820 Main Street, can be reached for additional information by calling 203-331-1104.