Gustave Whitehead - 1903

1903

A full-page article in the 19 September 1903 Scientific American told of Whitehead making powered flights. He first made a series of cautious experiments in a triplane glider towed against the wind by an assistant pulling a rope. He then replaced the assistant with a 54-pound (24 kg) two-cycle motor powering a two-blade propeller that was 4.5 ft (1.4 m) in diameter. The propeller was mounted on the motor's crankshaft in a tractor configuration to pull the aircraft forward rather than push it from behind. The motor was described as capable of generating 12 horsepower (8.9 kW) when operated at 2,500 rpm, but Whitehead throttled it back to 1,000 rpm in his flight experiments. "By running with the machine against the wind after the motor had been started, the aeroplane was made to skim along above the ground at heights of from 3 to 16 feet for a distance, without the operator touching, of about 350 yards. It was possible to have traveled a much longer distance, without the operator touching terra firma, but for the operator's desire not to get too far above it. Although the motor was not developing its full power, owing to the speed not exceeding 1,000 R.P.M., it developed sufficient to move the machine against the wind." The engine shown in the September 1903 article was the engine exhibited by Whitehead at the Second Annual Exhibit of the Aero Club of America in December 1906 that was shown in the photo between the Curtiss and Wright engines.