a local museum in CT, many years ago, had a special exhibit on Whitehead. It is all very impressive. For me, the clincher was the newspaper article from 1901 describing his flight. I trust historians would have gone over this with a fine toothed comb.
I think his story exemplies the professional hazards of being a “lone inventor”. No one to do PR, no one to really press his case because he was a nobody, so we see the result.
He was a hoaxer.
I think his story exemplies the professional hazards of being a “lone inventor”. No one to do PR, no one to really press his case because he was a nobody, so we see the result.
Yep. I think you are correct. My biggest problem is that history needs to be less on the fluid side. That is, barring new compelling evidence, what we know is what we “know”. There is no point in changing the history books on this one that I can see.
If you do something major, get it documented or you may not get noticed...