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 My own personal interest is the primary reason that I decided
to create this archive of information and photographs on the late
Gustave Whitehead. As a descendant of the inspired inventor, I
grew up with the knowledge that my great-great uncle had done
something truly amazing and had recieved no credit for it. When
I told my schoolmates about this man, they laughed at me. My grade
10 social studies teacher flunked a paper that I wrote about him,
claiming that even if I had cited other research on the subject,
it was horribly flawed in the sense of what our known history
was.
But this is many years later, and my interest in this case not
only comes from a sense of personal injustice done my late uncle,
but uncredited inventors everywhere. The study of history is usually
of the, "great man" variety. IE: One great man did one great thing.
This is true in all venues of history from exploration and the
military to the development of new technologies. But rarely does
one great man do anything. More often, there are a number of predecessors
to any historic moment, but the most charismatic or wealthy win
out against a backdrop of scrabbling others.
In this context, I would surely never claim that Whitehead himself
was the sole inventor of the airplane either - he gained a great
deal of insight from the Lillenthals in the construction of gliders,
he had many unpaid assistants who helped see his dream become
a reality, he gained his mechanical knowledge from other sources
as well.
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On the other hand, I do believe that he did conduct the world's
first controlled and sustained flight in a "heavier than air flying
machine," not only because of the family history, but because
of research that has been done both in Bridgeport Connecticut
and in the Bavarian region of Germany that has proven two things:
1) There were many people who did witness the early flights of
Gustave Whitehead, too many to be discredited, including newpaper
accounts.
2) The original design that Whitehead made was a machine that
would have flown - something that two different groups of air
enthusiasts proved in 1986 and again in 1996.
In reading about Gustave Whitehead in these following pages -
you may or may not believe in the man that history forgot. But
it is also important to note that even if you disbelieve his story,
it is worth reconsidering whether one great person ever accomplishes
anything alone, or only through the sum of all other's actions.
Megan Adam, January 1998
If you, the reader, posseses any information that is not contained
in these pages, please let me know. I am interested in obtaining
all known facts about this man in order to have a complete archive
of his work available to everyone on the internet.
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otivation for this Site 
