MATTHIAS LECHNER Historical Flight Research Committee Gustav Weisskopf Leutershausen, Germany Dear Mr Cooper, Thanks for your e-mail of April 7, 2000 and your interest in the Aviation Pioneer Gustave Whitehead (Weisskopf), who was born and bred here in Leutershausen, Bavaria, Germany. Next to our research work, we of the "Historical Flight Research Committee Gustav Weisskopf / Whitehead" have established and run an "Aviation Pioneer Gustav Weisskopf Museum", which gives an insight into Weisskopfs work and achievements as an early aviator, and will explain why he had fallen into oblivion. - But you, having checked into our internet pages (in German and English!!!), will already know a lot about Gus Whitehead and us. You are right, the Witteman Brothers were in contact with Whitehead. As a matter of fact, they had bought an engine (motor) from Gus Whitehead AND flew with it. We have an official statement of the Wittemans verifying the fact. Should you ever get a chance to read the book "HISTORY BY CONTRACT, The Beginning of Motorized Aviation: August 14, 1901, Gustave Whitehead, Fairfield, Conn." you will soon learn why G.W. did not even have a chance to be recognized among those early aviators. A dubious Contract signed between the Heirs of the Wrights and the Smithsonian is the biggest handicap. The paragraph which really is the "negative highlight" reads as follows: "Neither the Smithsonian 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 its own power in controlled flight." The impact of "History by Contract" may prove to be the most provocative indictment against the American aviation historians and the Smithsonian's National Air Museum for clamping the lid shut on the true facts concerning the achievement of man's first powered flight. For more than 7 decades, the US nation's hallowed institution has suppressed vital evidence that Gustave Whitehead, in powered and sustained flight, predated the aerial ventures of the Wrights in 1903. WE WOULD appreciate if you would add a page for our good old Gus to your site. Maybe you can help us in the battle to bring justice to Gus Whitehead. Lets place him into the niche of aviation history where he so rightfully belongs. Should you want to use something from our site, please go ahead and do so - but please give us credit for it and install a link to our Gustav A. Weißkopf/Gustave Whitehead site, OK??!! Regards, Matthias (Matt) LECHNER Historical Flight Research Committee Gustav Weisskopf, Leutershausen Gustav-Weisskopf-Strasse 13, D-91578 Leutershausen, Germany Email: Lechnermatt@compuserve.com Phone AND Fax: +49 9823 8023 |
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