Gustave Whitehead

Gustave Albin Whitehead, born Gustav Albin Weisskopf (1874 to 1927), was a German immigrant to the United States and an aviation pioneer who designed and built engines and very early aircraft. He did most of his aviation work between about 1895 and 1911 and gained only modest attention at the time. Newspapers reported that he flew in Connecticut in 1901, including a powered flight in his Number 21 aircraft near Fairfield on 14 August 1901 reported by the Bridgeport Herald, and he claimed a longer flight in 1902, but no photographs were taken and the reports rest largely on witness statements given decades later. His name faded until a 1935 magazine article and book revived it and began a lasting debate about whether he flew before the Wright brothers, a claim that remains disputed.