Obsessed with flying from an early age, Gustave built an aircraft powered by a steam engine in 1899. Later, he constructed an aviation workshop in the yard of his house. He built more than 30 aircraft engines and sold them to customers as far west as California.

Did Gustave Whitehead execute a powered flight on August 14, 1901? If he did indeed get off the ground in his “Airplane No. 21”—and some aviation historians believe there is evidence he did—the feat significantly preceded the Wright brothers’ first flight of December 17, 1903

Gustave was born Gustave Albin Weisskopf on January 1, 1874, in Bavaria, Germany. He was obsessed with flying from an early age. He met and corresponded with Otto Lilienthal while learning some of the principles of flight. He and a friend also caught and tethered birds in an attempt to discover how they flew—an activity which was soon stopped by the police. After emigrating to America, he built an aircraft powered by a steam engine in 1899. Whether or not the machine ever got airborne, it was certainly travelling fast enough on one occasion to crash into a building and hurt the passengers. Whitehead, at the controls, escaped injury. Later, he constructed an aviation workshop in the yard of his house. Local teenagers intrigued by his activities became his unpaid helpers.

Whitehead named his experimental machines in numerical order and completed Airplane No. 21 in early 1901. According to a report in the Bridgeport Sunday Herald, his first successful powered flight occurred on August 14, 1901, at Fairfield, Connecticut, US. The flight covered a distance of half a mile at a height of up to 50 ft. The reporter, Richard Howell, was also an artist, and he illustrated his article with an interesting sketch of the beautiful craft in flight. The flight reportedly included a change of direction to avoid a clump of chestnut trees and ended in a safe landing without damaging the plane. Later claims by Whitehead and the affidavits of his helpers (obtained more than 30 years after the event) fleshed out the details. Supporting evidence, including ground photographs taken in 1901, reveals Airplane No. 21 as a high-wing monoplane with an enclosed fuselage and aerodynamically correct wing characteristics like dihedral angle, camber and angle of incidence. It was built with bamboo ribbing and covered in silk. A movable horizontal tail provided pitch control. For banking and turning, Whitehead shifted his weight more to one side than the other. The craft had two engines—a ground engine and a flying one—both fuelled by a single calcium carbide (acetylene) generator. The ground engine was used for moving on four wheels on the ground and during the take-off roll. As the machine got airborne, fuel to the ground engine was cut, with all power then going to the main flight engine which powered two propellers in front. The engines were steam driven, but used the expansion force of acetylene instead of the much heavier steam system. No external starting aids, like a strong headwind or catapult, were necessary.

More flights may have taken place over the next year or so, but without reliable documentation. Later, Whitehead lost an eye when struck by a steel chip in a factory. He was also subject to increasing heart problems. He continued to work and invent, but profited no more from his inventions than he did from aircraft and engines. He died of a massive heart attack on October 10, 1927, leaving his family nothing but their home and $8 (Rs 363.44). Whitehead’s aviation innovations included the use of aluminium in engines and propellers, wheels for take-off and landing, ground-adjustable propeller pitch, individual control of propellers, folding wings for towing on roads, silk for wing covering, and concrete paved runways. He built more than 30 aircraft engines and sold them as far west as California.