Upon retirement, he brought his vast practical experience to aviation. His personality and work efficiency were like a breath of fresh air in the disorganised aeronautical research of the 1890s.

After a long and successful career in engineering, Octave Chanute became an aviation pioneer. At a stage when most people are keen to retire, he turned to his passion: corresponding and collaborating with other aviation enthusiasts, collating aeronautical knowledge and conducting several hundred manned glider flights. Even though his advanced age made flying inadvisable he was instrumental in encouraging many aviation researchers, including the Wright Brothers. Not for nothing is he called the ‘elder statesman’ or ‘godfather’ of aeronautics and aviation.

Octave Chanute was born in Paris on February 18, 1832. However, his family migrated to the US and Octave always considered himself an American. At 16, he began training as a civil engineer and was regarded as highly intelligent and innovative professionally. He ultimately became one of the nation’s most successful and distinguished civil engineers. He designed and built America’s two biggest stockyards at Chicago and Kansas City. Although the Missouri was widely considered to be unbridgeable, he constructed the Hannibal Bridge at Kansas City, the first to span the river. There were many other famous bridges during his long railroad career.

Upon his retirement, Octave Chanute brought his vast practical experience to aviation. His personality and work efficiency were like a breath of fresh air in the disorganised aeronautical research of the 1890s. Through patience, meticulous investigation and recognised problem-solving techniques, he gathered everything useful known about flight till then into one harmonious refrain. Believing that the progress of aviation would be hastened by collaboration rather than mindless competition, he shared his findings freely with all. He listed possible solutions and disseminated them to others so that they might carry out further experiments. He also built a community of researchers, corresponded internationally, organised symposia and served as free information service on the latest advancements in the field. In 1894, he published his seminal work Progress in Flying Machines, the most comprehensive survey of aviation research till that time. His tireless efforts won him the respect and affection of aviation investigators in the US and Europe.

In 1896, Octave Chanute began experimenting with gliders on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. Three of these were his own creation while two were designed by others. His aim was to develop inherently stable craft with moveable control surfaces. He felt that the best way to generate extra lift without an unaffordable increase in weight was to stack several wings one above the other, an idea pioneered by Otto Lilienthal in the 1890s. He eventually settled for a “bridge-truss” biplane design that would dominate aircraft construction for many years. He personally directed his loyal assistants through more than 1,000 flights in some of the most advanced gliders in the world, many over 100 feet in length. Ultimately he became a global expert in manned glider flights.

Of the scores of leading aviation researchers who corresponded with him was Wilbur Wright. In his first letter to Chanute dated May 13, 1900, Wilbur wrote: “For some years I have been afflicted with the belief that flight is possible to man. The disease has increased in severity and I feel it will soon cost me an increased amount of money, if not my life.” Chanute was impressed by the young Wright brothers’ attitude and commitment to manned flight. He became their chief supporter and supplied them with the latest aerial information through over 400 letters. He took special interest in their practical experiments and visited the site of their attempted flights more than once. On November 23, 1903, he presciently stated, “I believe the new machine of the Wrights to be the most promising attempt at flight that has yet been made.” Less than a month later, on December 17, 1903, the world’s first powered, controlled and sustained heavier-thanair flight took place at Kitty Hawk, with Orville Wright at the controls of the Wright Flyer.

Sadly, what should have been a close lifelong relationship soured over a basic difference of opinion. While Chanute believed in transparency and free sharing of aviation data, the Wrights were obsessively secretive. They wished to keep their results to themselves and patent whatever they made. Chanute, who had devoted much of his life in encouraging others and collaborating, profoundly disapproved of their attempts to control the technology of flight. He believed that flying could usher in a new age of peace and prosperity, but only if aviation knowledge were freely disseminated. He advised them to avoid becoming embroiled in patent disputes and concentrate instead on practical experiments. Even though their letters ceased for some years they always acknowledged their debt to Chanute. Remarkably, Chanute’s methodical record of correspondence exchanged with the Wrights is the only comprehensive documentation of the invention of their aeroplane.

Octave Chanute died in Chicago on November 23, 1910. His philosophy is best summed up in his words: “Let us hope that the advent of a successful flying machine, now only dimly foreseen and nevertheless thought to be possible, will bring nothing but good into the world; that it shall abridge distance, make all parts of the globe accessible, bring men into closer relation with each other, advance civilisation and hasten the promised era in which there shall be nothing but peace and goodwill among all men.”