Michael writes:

> Even so the license-plate from NC reads "first in flight", the first
>  flight was in Germany by Otto Lilienthal and not the Wright Brothers.
>  They were the first with an engine but not the first to fly.

Beyond Lilienthal, whose contributions to flight are beyond doubt, there is
an even more credible claim to priority for first powered flight made by the
people of New Zealand: Richard Pearse.

See:

     http://www.destination.co.nz/temuka/pearse.htm

Thirty years ago, my wife and I were given an all-expense paid, three-week
tour of the DSIR and CSIRO scientific laboratories of New Zealand and
Australia, primarily in Aukland, Wellington, Christchurch, Sydney, Wollongong
and most especially, Canberra. As a part of that tour, on our own time, we
went to every museum we could find, and that bit of exploration paid off in
spades. In a very small red brick museum, off in corner of Aukland, we
stumbled on Pearse's first aircraft and were amazed.

A significant number of people now put his first flights very near the same
time as the Wright Brothers, and possibly even before. The documentation for
those claims is simply not good enough to be absolutely sure, but there's no
doubt that he was very close.

Wirt Atmar

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