WRIGHT ORVILLE (1871-1948). Aviateur américain.

Lot 198
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Estimation :
2500 - 3000 EUR
WRIGHT ORVILLE (1871-1948). Aviateur américain.
Signed letter, Dayton, Ohio 19 October 1937, to Fred. L. BLACK, at the Edison Institute, in Dearborn (Michigan); 1 page and a half, in-4 format, typed letter, on his nameimprinted letterhead; in English. Controversy concerning the « fi rst fl ight » by the Wright Brothers. Gustave WHITEHEAD (1874-1927) claimed to be the fi rst to fl y a motorised aircraft on 14 August 1901. Supporters of Gustave A. Whitehead sought to prove that the German-born inventor fl ew a powered aircraft in August 1901, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, two years before the Wright Brothers made their fi rst powered fl ight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The controversy sparked Orville Wright to write his ‘Mythical Whitehead Flight,’ which appeared in the August 1945 issue of U.S. Air Services. “I have not seen the book Lost Flights of Gustave Whitehead [by Stella Randolph], but I did see the story on the same subject printed in ‘Popular Aviation’ of January, 1935, and signed by Stella Randolph and Harvey Phillips. I have learned through a friend in Washington that Miss Randolph works in a doctor’s offi ce in Washington; that she has no particular interest in aviation; that the Harvey Phillips whom she had not known before, induced her to collaborate with him in the preparation of the story. I suspect that, could it be traced, the idea for the book would be found to have originated in the mind of A. F. Zahm, of whom you already know. He has been quite active in this matter, as I have learned from several sources. The book is interesting in showing how easy it is, after an interval of 35 years, to get affi davits on matters which are utterly false. Neither Wilbur nor I ever were in Bridgeport until 1909, and then only in passing through on the train…” “I believe I told you of the statements of eye-witnesses secured by A. V. Roe to establish his claim to having been the fi rst Englishman to fl y. Unfortunately for Roe I had in my possession letters written by hi
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