Magyar News, 2001. szeptember-2002. augusztus (12. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2002-06-01 / 10. szám
Ulho A flew f f r/( * by Bob Kranyik and Andy Kosch On the morning of December 17,1903, a primitive biplane was launched from the top of a sand dune at Kill Devil Hill in the town of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The plane flew into the sea breeze coming in off the Atlantic Ocean for a distance of 120 feet, and it remained in the air for 12 seconds. The pilot was Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, who had won the right to fly the craft for the first time in a coin toss with his brother Wilbur. This was the world's first power-driven, heavier- thanair flight as reported by four newspapers, each of whose accounts suffered from inaccuracies. There were five persons in addition to the Wrights who witnessed the event. The achievement reported that day established the Wright brothers as the inventors of an airplane which was the first to fly successfully under power . But, were the Wright Brothers really the first to fly? In April or May of 1899, according to Louis Davarich, who was there, a plane built and flown by Gustave Whitehead, a Bavarian immigrant, flew about a mile in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, The wedding photograph of Gustave Whitehead and Louise Tuba, who were married in Buffalo, New York in 1898. at an altitude of 20 to 25 feet, but it crashed into a three story building because it was unable to climb above then existing structure. Interestingly, even prior to this a New York Times article dated October 6, 1897 told of an upcoming flight by Whitehead, scheduled for the following Sunday in the "High Bridge" area of New York City. The article described the plane in detail and mentioned that it could be equipped with a motor and two propellers, or could be used as a "soaring machine". Then, in the middle of 1901, John Fekete of Bridgeport, Connecticut, a retired machinist and neighbor of Whitehead, recalled seeing Whitehead fly thirty feet above the ground for a distance of two hundred feet on Sport Hill, in the little town of Easton, just north of Bridgeport. In the summer of 1901, Junius Harwarth (Horvath?) saw Whitehead's plane, likely design number 21, fly short hops near the Bridgeport Gas Company in the Hungarian section of Bridgeport. He recalled that a flight reached an altitude of about five feet. Joseph Ratzenberger, who later became a Bridgeport policeman, also lived in the area, and recalled a flight in about July or August of 1901 or 1902, which began in a lot between Pine and Cherry Streets in the Hungarian section of Bridgeport. He stated that the plane flew about twelve feet off the ground and landed at Bostwick Avenue. Cecil Steeves recalled a flight which possibly took place in 1901, when he was 14 years old, and was returning from school. Steeves recalled that the, plane took off from the "north side of Fairfield Avenue, rose to the height of 20 - 25 feet", and he guessed “that the entire flight would have been 700 feet or more". Then, on August 14, 1901, Whitehead's bird-like monoplane rose into the dawn and flew a distance of approximately one half mile. Three newspapers carried accounts of this first flight, including the Bridgeport, CT Herald, the Boston Transcript, and the New York Herald. Three additional flights were reported on the same day, and one witness reported that he saw Whitehead and his plane achieve an altitude of about 200 feet, for a distance of about one and one half miles. The “21”plane as seen from above Whitehead, on returning home that evening, exclaimed to his wife " Mamma, we went up!" Junius Harworth a helper, attested to a flight. Junius recalled that Whitehead's airplane flew about 200 feet high and about 1 mile distant. According to Harworth, the plane was powered by a four cylinder, two cycle engine. The flight took place at Lordship Manor, near Long Island Sound in Stratford, Connecticut. Anton Pruckner, a machinist and close associate, witnessed a flight again on the same day. He estimated that the flight he observed covered about 1/2 mile and the plane rose to about 50 feet in the air. In responding to a question about a supposed previous seven mile long flight by Whitehead, Pruckner indicated that he had no reason to doubt that the flight had taken place, because he had seen the aircraft fly successfully on many occasions. Michael Werer saw a flight of about 400 feet, at an altitude of six feet at Tunxis Hill Road, in Fairfield, just over the Bridgeport line. It lasted about 30 seconds. This flight occurred in September or October of 1901. This flight may also have been witnessed by Gustave Peschelle. In 1974 at the age of 94, Elizabeth Köteles of Bridgeport stated that early in her married life, she and her husband were neighbors of the Whiteheads on Pine Street, in Bridgeport. Mrs. Köteles recalled that she and her husband walked up to Tunxis Hill to watch Whitehead fly his airplane in 1901. She identified the place as the Gypsy Springs section of the hill, in a Hungarian area called Villa Park. She recalled that Whitehead's airplane rose up to an altitude of 4 or 5 feet and flew a distance of approximately 150 - 250 feet Page 3
