Gustave Whitehead - Legacy

Legacy

Opinions about Whitehead's work and accomplishments differ sharply between two groups of researchers, with the mainstream viewpoint dismissive or very doubtful. Establishment names include aviation historians William F. Trimble, Fred Howard (a Wright brothers biographer), British historian Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith, as well as Tom Crouch and Walter Boyne at the Smithsonian Institution. They all express serious doubt or flatly dismiss claims for Whitehead.

Researchers focused only on Whitehead include aspiring young author Stella Randolph inspired and informed by aviation buff Harvey Phillips in the 1930s, supported by prof John B. Crane's articles from 1936-1949. Researchers from 1963 and forward were: Major William O'Dwyer (ret.) of the U.S. Air Force Reserve in cooperation with Connecticut Aeronautical Historical Association ( CAHA); Harold Dolan, a Sikorsky Aircraft engineer and vice president/secretary of the CAHA; Harvey Lippincott, founder, and at the time president of CAHA; Stella Randolph; teacher and hang-glider Andy Kosch; and the Flugpionier-Gustav-Weisskopf-Museum in Whitehead's birthplace in Germany. These researchers have spent decades studying Whitehead and seriously consider the possibility that he made powered flights before 1903.

In 1945, Whitehead's son Charles was interviewed on a national radio program as the son of the first man to fly. That claim was highlighted in a magazine article, which was condensed in a Reader's Digest article that reached a very large audience. Orville Wright, then in his seventies, countered by writing an article, "The Mythical Whitehead Flight", which appeared in the August 1945 issue of U.S. Air Services, a publication with a far smaller, but very influential, readership. Wright listed several reasons for disbelieving Whitehead, then quoted John J. Dvorak, professor of Physics at Washington University in St. Louis, who had hired Whitehead to make Dvorak's engine design work in 1904 but rejected his flight claims in 1936. Dvorak said, "I personally do not believe that Whitehead ever succeeded in making any airplane flights. Here are my reasons: 1. Whitehead did not possess sufficient mechanical skill and equipment to build a successful motor. 2. Whitehead was given to gross exaggeration. He was eccentric – a visionary and a dreamer to such an extent that he actually believed what he merely imagined. He had delusions." This was a reversal of Dvorak's original opinion about Whitehead's competence. When he worked with Whitehead, Dvorak reportedly believed that Whitehead "was more advanced with the development of aircraft than other persons who were engaged in the work."

In the 1950s British aviation historian and author Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith studied The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright at the Library of Congress, and Randolph's 1937 book, and concluded that reports of Whitehead making a successful flight in advance of the Wright brothers were fabrications. Gibbs-Smith wrote: "Unfortunately, some of those who advanced claims were more intent on discrediting the Wright brothers than on establishing facts." He said in 1960 that no "reputable" aviation historian believes Whitehead ever flew. In 1969 during his year as the senior scholar winner of the Charles A. Lindbergh Chair in Aerospace History, Gibbs-Smith extensively researched the field of early aviation developments and claims, and determined that all of Whitehead's claims of being first in powered flight were fabricated, that they were "flights of fancy". He described the arc of Whitehead's career as a retrogression, that it moved from supposed early successes to less ambitious experiments, and then descended further to unlikely designs and public failure. Gibbs-Smith was convinced that any true success along the way would have brought Whitehead's achievements wide recognition, but this never happened.

Gibbs-Smith also wrote that "Whitehead was incapable of solving the complex problems involved, especially that of a suitable engine."

Interest in Whitehead's engines is indicated by the recollections of his daughter Rose, who said her father received numerous orders for them and even declined as many as 50 orders in a single day because he was too busy.

An online biography based on the O'Dwyer and Randolph books asserts that the engine Whitehead purportedly used in Pittsburgh attracted the attention of Australian aeronautical pioneer, Lawrence Hargrave, who in 1889 invented a rotary engine: "This steam machine was so ingenious that several years later Lawrence Hargrave told of using miniature designs of "Weisskopf-style" steam machines, as well as the "Weisskopf System" for his model trials in Australia."

Contemporary experienced amateur aviation researchers Nick Engler and Louis Chmiel dismiss Whitehead's work and its influence, even if new evidence is discovered showing that he flew before the Wright brothers:

"While Whitehead believers insist that he was first to fly, no one claims that his work had any effect on early aviation or the development of aeronautic science. Even if someone someday produces a photo of No. 21 in flight on August 14, 1901, it will be nothing more than a footnote, a curious anomaly in the history of aviation."