The International Cessna^® 170 Association

SLMAO!!!!!!!! I knew that the "G-Man" would bite on this one faster than a bass after a jiggly wiggle fishing lure!

Just to add to the original theme of the first flight, there was a man in Fredricksberg, Tx, who claimed to have flown before the Wright brothers. There is a statue of him there, but I cannot recall his name. I was made aware of this by his great granddaughter, whom I worked with here at City Hall, in Corpus Christi. She showed me printed articles on the subject, which recounted his flight, (which ended in a crash of his aircraft). It was then hung in a barn until he could get enough money to repair it. The barn had a " mysterious" fire and was destroyed along with the aircraft. There were stocks sold on the plane,(so he could build it), which were pictured in the article. Maybe Richard, in Fredricksberg, could see if he can get the name on the statue. (Sorry, I don't mean to assign tasks, but I'm not close enough at this time to do it myself). Just thought it was interesting. Jon

There are numerous claims around the world by folks who insisted they flew before the Wrights. There is considerable evidence that a South American did so, and certainly the French have a claim. There is a replica hanging in the terminal bldg in Lubbock, TX that represents the claim of a local fellow who maintained he'd done so a month before Kill Devil Hills.

The problem with most of those claims is that there is no substantiating evidence of the actual dates their flights occured. The Wrights were better at documenting and having their attempts witnessed. (Then they became so paranoid that their ideas would be stolen, they kept much of their work secret and ended up wasting their time and money defending it.)

In my opinion, Glenn Curtis did as much or more than the Wrights to advance powered flight. The Wrights were so jealous of him they sued him almost continuously and wasted a great deal of energy in acrimonious attacks of his work. It must have really galled the family to see their original company and it's patents merged (against their wishes) to form the Curtis-Wright firm.

Thanks Richard. I didn't think of Googling it. Duh! I was thinking that in the articles I read, that he was a school teacher, but it has been a while since I read them. His great granddaughter had quite a few articles and copies of paperwork. on the subject. to substantiate the claims. Jon

And then there is former Baptist preacher Burrell Cannon's Ezekiel airship that he built around 1900 in Pittsburg, TX and pilot Gus Stamps reportedly flew it 160 feet in 1902 Cannon supposedly got the idea for his airship from the book of Ezekiel in the Bible. The airship was destroyed near Texarkana, TX when it blew off the flatcar as it was being shipped via rail to St Louis for exhibition. Cannon then is reported to have built a second airship around 1911 & it too was destroyed when the pilot flew it into a telephone pole. So much for proper flight planning There is a small museum in downtown Pittsburg, TX that has a full sized replica of the 1902 airship on display. Interesting to look at and wonder if the original one did in fact fly. The test pilots of these first "airplanes" had to be pretty tough or dumb. Had the award been around in those days each would probably been prime candidates for the Dumb & Tough award

hilltop170 wrote:...Jon-
I'm a lot further from Fredericksburg than you are, I'm in Anchorage,

That's ANC, Richard.

hilltop170 wrote:...Brodbeck's plane used a wound up spring for power so it was obviously not going to be able to sustain flight for any reasonable length of time. Maybe if he had been a machinist instead of a watch-maker things would have been different.

Maybe he was WAY ahead of his time and was thinking about GREEN-power for flight!

(Joe Harris would be thrilled with such aspirations!)

Richard, I see y'all are having a heat wave in Anchorage. Whats the flying like up there? Jon

gahorn wrote:That's ANC, Richard.

George, ANC is a VOR and I'm not there. You were trying to say PANC but that is the Anchorage International Airport and I'm not there either!!!

I'm actually at AK24, Hilltop Airport, Chugiak, Alaska, which is actually in the Muncipality of Anchorage, right where I said I was.



And George, what happened my post?

jon s blocker wrote:Richard, I see y'all are having a heat wave in Anchorage. Whats the flying like up there? Jon

Jon- It's +5°F and CAVU. A beautiful day for flying in Alaska.

hilltop170 wrote:

gahorn wrote:That's ANC, Richard.

George, ANC is a VOR and I'm not there. You were trying to say PANC but that is the Anchorage International Airport and I'm not there either!!!

I'm actually at AK24, Hilltop Airport, Chugiak, Alaska, which is actually in the Muncipality of Anchorage, right where I said I was.



And George, what happened my post?

If you are in Chugiak...why don't you say so?

If you were in Sausalito, ...


would you claim to be in San Francisco ?

Maybe if I was trying to make a statement, is someone trying to make a statement with that example?

Hmmmmmn. I'm trying to find your quoted post, Richard.... did you delete it? That's the only way I can imagine why it disappeared....

The links have been deleted for some reason. (Try re-posting them to see what happens.)

George-
My post was there until you quoted it. I did not delete it.

Well, for whatever reason the post was deleted and I have no control over it and cannot recover it, nor does the software allow me to research key-strokes to discover the problem. I suggest re-posting the info....and we'll see if it happens again.

hilltop170 wrote:George-
My post was there until you quoted it. I did not delete it.

Richard be carefull, remember what the moderator did to BluElders School Teacher!!!!