Blueskies wrote:


"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
oups.com...
I don't think he "flew". He never left ground effect.


So by that definition, the Wright brothers didn't 'fly' until 1905...

I've also heard someone say he flew farther then the Wrights as some sort of
justification for this "flight". All of these comparisons are lame.

I don't see anything that looks like ailerons on the wings, was he even
prepared for flight? Elevators?

Part of the "Wright stuff" (what a great pun) was the understanding the role
of control and providing for it in their designs. Without it there is no
airplane, just a toy.

Nowadays there are plenty of ways to calculate ahead of time whether or not
the machine is capable of flight. Eyeball, by gosh and by golly engineering
also went out with the Wrights. My guess is they knew it was just capable
of a hop and figured that was the safest way out. Otherwise they could have
put more wing on it and got a real flight.
--
Frank....H