"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...

The Wright Flyer *flew*. Anyone who investigates the event at
Kittyhawk will agree with that. Only after understanding that the
plane flew are we required to define what we mean by flight--in other
words, the definition follows the event, as in the case of most human
endeavors. To some that may seem arbitrary; to me it's just the way
the human mind works.


If that were true, wouldn't Clement Ader be credited with the first flight?
He is credited with being first to leave the ground in a powered,
heavier-than-air machine. He wasn't credited with the first flight because
he did not control his machine. It was known at the time, before the
Wrights flew, that true flight required control.



Apparently there is some argument that Scott Crossfield? and not Chuck
Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier, though this is
not a debate that interests me very much.


I believe you mean George Welch, not Scott Crossfield. There are several
claims to supersonic flight before Yeager, the only one with some merit is
George Welch in the XP-86.



Too bad for Mr. Cawley's coachman! Too bad for Augustus Whitehead! I'm
not even sure I spell their names correctly, because they failed to
achieve flight.


That would be George Cayley's coachman, and Gustave Whitehead.