FOXNews.com: WRITING OUT WRIGHTS: Conn. Bill Strips Brothers Of First Powered Flight Title

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WRITING OUT WRIGHTS: Conn. Bill Strips Brothers Of First Powered Flight Title Jun 5th 2013, 17:36 Dec. 17 1903: The first flight by Wright brothers Ovrville and Wilbur, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The gas pressure motor was used to drive the wheels.Flight Historical Research Foundation Gustav Weisskopf Gustave Whitehead, 2nd from left, with visitors in front of his "No 21". At his feet the self built gas pressure motor.Flight Historical Research Foundation Gustav Weisskopf Next Slide Previous Slide Are they righting a wrong or wronging the Wrights? The Connecticut Senate passed a bill Tuesday evening that would delete the Wright brothers from history, explicitly stripping recognition for the first powered flight from Orville and Wilbur and assigning it to someone else. 'At least in Connecticut, aviation history now appears to have been rewritten.' - Aviation historian John Brown "The Governor shall proclaim a date certain in each year as Powered Flight Day to honor the first powered flight by [the Wright brothers] Gustave Whitehead and to commemorate the Connecticut aviation and aerospace industry," reads House Bill No. 6671, which now sits on the governor's desk awaiting passage into law. "At least in Connecticut, aviation history now appears to have been rewritten," aviation historian John Brown told FoxNews.com. "I have no information about whether school books will be reprinted in time for the start of Fall classes." In March, Brown unveiled what he calls photographic proof that Whitehead flew over Connecticut in 1901, "two years, four months, and three days before the Wright brothers," Brown told FoxNews.com at the time. "It's really a radical revision of the history of aviation." The Wright brothers soared into history books on Dec. 17, 1903, following their historic, 852-foot, 59-second flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C. -- an achievement for which the duo are widely described as being "first in flight." But historians have long known that others were working on a variety of flying machines, including a fellow U.S. resident, German immigrant Gustav Whitehead (born Weisskopf). Read the fine print A 1948 contract between the Smithsonian museum and Orville Wright requires the museum to call the Wright Flyer the first real airplane, critics argue. Here, the relevant excerpt from the contract: "Neither the Smithsonian Institution nor its successors, nor any museum or other agency ... or its successors shall publish or permit to be displayed a statement or label in connection with or in respect of any aircraft model or design of earlier date than the Wright Aeroplane of 1903, claiming in effect that such aircraft was capable of carrying a man under its own power in controlled flight." Read the full contract here. Whitehead flew early in the morning of Aug. 14, 1901, Brown said. His winged, bird-like plane was called No. 21, or "The Condor"; with wooden wheels and canvas wings stretched taut across bat-like wooden arms, it rose over the darkened streets of Bridgeport, Conn., and covered an estimated 1.5 miles at a height of 50 feet, he said. Since Brown's March revelation, controversy has swirled around his claims. The Smithsonian Museum in particular -- curators of the Wright Brother's plane -- continue to express doubts about Brown's claims. "There is no solid proof on the Whitehead side that stands up to scrutiny," Tom D. Crouch, senior curator of aeronautics for the Institute, told FoxNews.com via email in April. "Did Whitehead fly? Did Daedalus fly? There is not much more solid evidence for Whitehead than there is for Daedalus." Brown told FoxNews.com on Wednesday that the bill is based not on partisan beliefs but on hard facts. "These weren't just people cheering the home team," he told FoxNews.com. "Several legislators -- from both parties -- contacted me before the vote … they'd clearly done their homework and asked hard-ball questions." "It was refreshing for me to see how seriously they took their vote," Brown added. While Kitty Hawk, N.C., has become famously associated with flight thanks to Orville and Wilbur, Connecticut has a deep history in the aviation world as well. Sikorsky Aircraft, makers of the Black Hawk helicopter, are headquartered mere miles from the site of Whitehead's achievement. Related Interactive Contract between Wrights, Smithsonian decrees Flyer was first plane Related Stories Wright brothers 'first in flight'? Not quite, researcher claims Wright or wrong? Smithsonian enters 'first in flight' fight 400-Million-year-old 'spiny shark' fossil found

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