A high school science teacher is out to prove someone else took flight before the Wright Brothers did. NY1's Valarie D'Elia filed the following report.
Bridgeport, Connecticut high school science teacher Andy Kosch has been on a mission for at least 30 years. A daunting one at that: to prove the Wright Brothers wrong.
Kosch is part of a persistent movement that firmly believes a Bridgeport resident, German immigrant Gustave Whitehead, preceded the Wright Brothers’ legendary 1903 powered flight by two years.
"And he is supposed to have flown a half a mile, 40 feet in the air," Kosch says. "Now, even if he flew only 10 percent of that, it would be better than what the Wright Brothers did."
So determined to defend Whitehead, Kosch has built replicas. The first briefly took flight, as seen in a 1987 "60 Minutes" feature.
The "supposed" nature of Whitehead’s alleged first flight is casting doubt on Kosch’s claim, despite a 1901 article in the Bridgeport Herald documenting the occurrence. There are reportedly no actual photos, no journals and no flight plan left by Whitehead, and that has lead the Smithsonian to categorically dismiss the notion.
However, Kosch maintains Whitehead recently received a huge vote of confidence.
"Jane’s All-The-World’s Aircraft is considered to be the bible of aviation, and they have accepted Gustav Whitehead as first to fly, and the governor of Connecticut and the legislature have accepted Whitehead as the first to fly."
Kosch is presently field-testing a new replica of Whitehead’s plane, which, like his crusade to change aviation history, is having trouble getting off the ground.