There's too much credit going to the Wright Brothers
Their plane required a headwind to take off at all, I mean yeah, props to them for getting off the ground at all
But who should get more credit is Alberto Santos-Dumont, his plane could actually fly with just its own power
@troubleMoney "props to them" ???
:-)
@gemlog ...that wasn't even intentional
@troubleMoney I guessed -- that's why I have such a grin on my clock right now! :-)
food
@troubleMoney plus there was a pretty rad bagel shop named after him nearby
@troubleMoney I haven't looked in a while but aren't there a handful of people achieving flight before they did?
Seems that you really just need to be the first with media publicity. See also Colossus vs. ENIAC I suppose.
@BatElite There are a number of claims but none of those seem have been verified
The main contenders are Santos and the Wright brothers and that comes down to how you classify a flight
IMO if you can't take off under your own power then it doesn't count
@troubleMoney reading an article on him from the smithsonian ".Besides this prize, Santos Dumont received the sum of 100,000 francs which he distributed in equal parts to his workers and the beggars of Paris."