Document Guarantees That Wright Flyer Would Always Be Labeled 'First In Flight'

Amidst the long-simmering controversy about whether the Wright Brothers were actually the first to fly a heavier-than-air powered airplane, the Smithsonian Institution has for the first time publicly released the contract it signed in 1948 that states: "Neither the Smithsonian Institution or its successors nor any museum or other agency, bureau, or facilities administered for the United States of America by the Smithsonian Institution or its successors, shall publish or permit to be displayed a statement or label in connection with or in respect of any aircraft model or design of earlier date than the Wright Aeroplane of 1903, claiming in effect that such aircraft was capable of carrying a man under it own power in controlled flight."

That claim is in some dispute. Australian aviation historian John Brown says Gustav Whitehead, a German immigrant, flew a powered airplane over Connecticut in the early morning hours of August 14th, 1901 ... two years before the Wrights made their famous flight at Kitty Hawk. Brown says some recently-discovered photographs prove Whitehead was first.

Fox News reports that the contract between the museum and Orville Wright was signed in 1948. Wilbur had died in May of 1912 following a bout of typhoid fever, according to a NASA biography. The document allowed the transfer of the original Wright Flyer from the London Science Museum to the Smithsonian ... with the caveat that no other airplane ever be designated as having flown before the Wright Flyer. The transfer was done for one dollar.

The contract language stemmed from the display of an airplane that the Smithsonian built early in the 20th century and was labeled "first airplane capable of flight." Even the institution now admits that the statement was misleading. Orville was reportedly angered by the claim, and had the Wright Flyer sent to London for display. It was put in storage in a quarry to protect it during the war, and after the hostilities ended, the transaction and the contract were completed.

Peter Jakab, associate director of curatorial affairs for the Smithsonian Museum, told Fox News that the agreement has never been secret.

The Smithsonian's senior curator of aeronautics Tom Crouch said in a recent blog post that the contract exists and is still in force. In an open-letter response to Brown's public charge that the museum is being forced to say the Wrights were first, Crouch said "if substantial evidence of a pre-Wright flight claim were to be produced, I hope I would have the courage to admit it."

Jakab said that the legacy of the Wright's accomplishment might be more important that who actually flew first. The 1903 airplane "was able to evolve into something we have today," he said ... adding "in addition to being the first to fly."

(Pictured: Wright Flyer on display at the Smithsonian Institution)

FMI: www.si.edu