Well....according to http://www.maria-brazil.org/sdumont.htm Santos-Dumont
"...achieved his dream of flying in a heavier-than-air craft in October of
1906, when his 14 Bis flew a distance of 60 meters at a height of 2 to 3
meters." (He was living in Paris at the time.) The same source also
mentions that there is some dispute that "the world" actually knew about the
December 1903 flight of the Wrights, but the motion picture film of the
Wright's flight (that we have all seen) looks rather convincing, and there
were no Hollywood special effects that long ago, so we know that they got
off the ground sometime, but not with certainty when.
According to http://www.wright-brothers.org/History/Wright
Story/politics.htm "The Wright brothers applied to the US Patent Office in
1903. The patent was awarded in 1906 and in 1913 is was adjudicated to be
the 'grandfather' patent of the airplane." Although the site shows the
original patent, the graphic is too small and the dates can not be read.
Nor was I able to verify these dates at the US Patent and Trademark Office
web site because the search on either brother fails to find any patents.
Hmmmm. The boys must have been pretty optimistic because there were only 14
days left in the year when they first flew, leaving little time to prepare
their patent application and still file it in 1903.
We all agree that his ailerons were superior to the Wright's wing warp
"technology."
Best regards,
Rob Housman
A070
-----Original Message-----
Behalf Of Alexander P. de C. Kaarsberg
Subject: Re: 51% rule
Hi Cliff,
Thanks for the info.
If you look at my address, you will see a '.br', that's the code for Brazil.
Here we have a long tradition of flying and unknown to the rest of the
world, flying got started with our Santos Dumont (he was also the first
to fly an airship) who was credited with being the first pilot to fly a
machine heavier than air, before the Wright brothers.....they only got
the credit many years after and there is a lot of debate as to the truth
of their story...
Sorry, that was a sidestep- I am looking for something to get busy with
once mine is built and want to offer building or part building.
I am an aircraft mechanic with 25 years experience on hot air balloons
to 747's and have fallen for the Europa, I am trying to sell this fine
bird here in Brazil in spite of the exchange rates that are crippling
the country and am working to establish a company to do building for
those who can't/won't do it themselves.
There is plenty of good manpower here and the rates are good, so it is
possible to offer high quality at the right price.
Regards,
Alex, kit 529
Cliff Shaw wrote:
>Alex
>
>Try this web page http://www.sportpilot.org/ I think you will be able to
>learn more that I can tell you.
>
>I am interested, tell me, Ware are you located. It helps when requesting
>information to give information first. People are funny that way.
>
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