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Gustave Albin Whitehead (born Gustav Albin Weisskopf 1 January 1874 – 10 October 1927) was an aviation pioneer who emigrated from Germany to the United States where he designed and built gliders, flying machines and engines between 1897 and 1915. Controversy surrounds published accounts and Whitehead's own claims that he flew a powered machine successfully several times in 1901 and 1902, predating the first flights by the Wright Brothers in 1903. Much of Whitehead's reputation rests on a newspaper article written as an eyewitness account which stated that Whitehead made a powered flight in Connecticut on August 14, 1901. In the months that followed, details from this article were widely reprinted in newspapers around the world. Whitehead's aircraft designs and experiments also attracted notice in ''Scientific American'' magazine and a 1904 book about industrial progress. Whitehead later worked for sponsors who hired him to build aircraft of their own design, although none flew, and he became a known designer and builder of lightweight engines. He fell out of public notice around 1915 and died in relative obscurity in 1927. In 1937, a magazine article and book asserted that Whitehead had made powered flights in 1901-1902.〔Randolph, Stella (1937). ''Lost Flights of Gustave Whitehead''. Washington, DC: Places, Inc.〕 The book included statements from people who said they had seen various Whitehead flights decades earlier. The book and article triggered debate in the 1930s and '40s among scholars, researchers, aviation enthusiasts and Orville Wright over the question of whether Whitehead was first in powered flight. Mainstream historians dismissed the flight claims. Nevertheless, further independent research in the 1960s and '70s, including more books in 1966 and 1978 by the same author of the 1937 book, supported the Whitehead claims.〔Randolph, Stella (1966). The Story of Gustave Whitehead, Before the Wrights Flew. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.〕 No photograph conclusively showing Whitehead making a powered controlled flight is known to exist. However, reports have referred to such photos being on display as early as 1904. Researchers have studied and attempted to copy Whitehead aircraft. Since the 1980s, enthusiasts in the U.S. and Germany have built and flown versions of Whitehead's "Number 21" machine using modern engines and propellers. The Smithsonian Institution has repeatedly dismissed claims that Whitehead made powered flights before the Wrights. However the 1978 book ''History by Contract'' presented evidence that the Smithsonian compromised its objectivity when it signed a 1948 agreement with the estate of Orville Wright requiring the Institution to recognize the 1903 Wright Flyer as the first aircraft to make a manned, powered, controlled flight or forfeit possession of the Wright brothers' first aircraft. A sharp difference of opinion continues among aviation researchers and historians over Whitehead's work. Some believe that he was the first human to fly a powered heavier-than-air machine, while others believe none of his powered machines ever flew and that he contributed nothing to aviation. In 2013 ''Jane's All The World's Aircraft'' published an essay in which the author asserted that Whitehead was first to make a manned, powered, controlled flight. This article, backed by ''Jane's'' international reputation, reignited debate over who flew first. The editorial relied heavily on a researcher whose identification of a photo of Whitehead in powered flight was conclusively debunked by another researcher. ''Jane's'' later took steps to distance itself from the claims of the piece, asserting that they were the views of the author, not the magazine. Motivated by the ''Jane's'' editorial, Connecticut enacted a law which specifies that "Powered Flight Day" honors the first powered flight by Gustave Whitehead, rather than the Wright Brothers.〔(Public Act No. 13-210 ) Retrieved June 27, 2013〕 == Early life and career == Whitehead was born in Leutershausen, Bavaria, the second child of Karl Weisskopf and his wife Babetta. As a boy he showed an interest in flight, experimenting with kites and earning the nickname "the flyer". He and a friend caught and tethered birds in an attempt to learn how they flew, an activity which the police soon stopped. His parents died in 1886 and 1887, when he was a boy. He then trained as a mechanic and traveled to Hamburg, where in 1888 he was forced to join the crew of a sailing ship. A year later he returned to Germany, then journeyed with a family to Brazil. He went to sea again for several years, learning more about wind, weather and bird flight. Weisskopf arrived in the U.S. in 1893.〔1900 U.S. Census, Pennsylvania, Allegheny, Pittsburgh, S.D. 18, E.D. 179, Sheet 16〕 He soon anglicized his name to Gustave Whitehead. The New York toy manufacturer E. J. Horsman hired Whitehead to build and operate advertising kites and model gliders. Whitehead also made plans to add a motor to propel one of his gliders. In 1893 Whitehead was allegedly employed at the Blue Hill kite-flying meteorological station.〔http://www.connecticutmag.com/Blog/Connecticut-Today/August-2013/The-Case-for-Gustave-Whitehead-as-First-in-Flight-Continues-to-Soar-in-Connecticut/index.php?cparticle=2&siarticle=1〕 In 1896 Whitehead was hired as a mechanic for the Boston Aeronautical Society. He and mechanic Albert B. C. Horn built a Lilienthal-type glider and an ornithopter. Whitehead made a few short and low flights in the glider, but did not succeed in flying the ornithopter. Also in 1896, founding Society member Samuel Cabot employed Whitehead and carpenter James Crowell to build a Lilienthal glider. Cabot reported to the Society that tests with this glider were unsuccessful.〔http://www.massaerohistory.org/Boston_Aeronautical_Society.pdf〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gustave Whitehead」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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