Hi Redcross,

I thought that was the sign used to great an oncoming Alfa Romeo, when I am in mine.....does that mean I won't have to learn a whole new greeting ???? Cool.

As far as the flying discussion goes....that's about as hot an iron as you can get your hands on ;-) aside from maybe for or against W :lol:

There are many that claim to have done it first. A few are mentioned in this thread. What sets the wrights appart was their documentation not only on the historic day in NC.....but all the trials before that.

Fascinated with human flight they started by trying to work with what others had done before. My fellow countryman Otto Lilienthal comes to mind who was at the time the most advanced glider pilot.....turns out his wing design had major flaws wich the Wrights first copied...the curve of the airfoil primarily...and then later corrected.

They worked step by step through many setbacks....using a windtunnel of their own design to truely understand what it takes to fly...and they succeeded. So was there possibly another short hop of a powered apparatus before Dec 17th 1903...somewhere else in the world ??? Maybe...first flight could have easily taken place within a modern jetliners fuselage, a replica of their creation last year plopped in a puddle after having flown before because the weather gods, as many pilots will attest, are a cruel bunch.
But their overall approach to the challenge of human flight makes them worthy of their title.

And all that with a plane that still ended up being all backwards :-) Just don't tell Burt Rutan I said that.