A contract that stripped Santos=Dumont of all of his merits - The Wright & Smithsonian Brothers Agreement

 

Above, joint work by Langley and Santos=Dumont to unravel the mysteries of flight - Below, a tiny space reserved for Santos=Dumont. A lifetime of aerial accomplishments ignored by the Smithsonian.

To explain why Santos=Dumont was practically obliterated from aviation history by the Smithsonian an article titled "Smithsonian releases Wright brothers agreement detailing 'first in flight' claims" explains the case.

leia este artigo em Português

Published by Fox News on October 20, 2015 by Jeremy Kaplan, the article says that the Smithsonian has publicly disclosed the 1948 contract between the Orville Wright estate and the institution, which states that the Smithsonian must recognize the Wright brothers as the first in flight. The agreement prevents the Smithsonian from claiming that any aircraft prior to the Wrights' plane in 1903 was capable of carrying a man under its own power in controlled flight.

Disclaimer

Before moving forward with this matter, it is very important to say that we must respect all aeronautics pioneers for their wonderful deeds, the Wright brothers did incredible things, as much as other pioneers. I do not intend to diminish the image of the Brothers, however, I want the space reserved for great achievements of Santos=Dumont to be ensured within a scientific context, not a political one, even more so within an institution as grand as the Smithsonian Museum.

With that said, we continue with the article.

The article suggests that an aviation historian argues that the contract is wrong and forces the museum to ignore the truth. The Smithsonian decided to release the contract publicly to allow the world to make its own decisions.

According to Peter Jakab, associate director of curatorial affairs at the Smithsonian Museum, before heavier-than-air flying apparatus existed, the Smithsonian Institution sponsored the experiments of Samuel Langley, an astronomer and physicist who had been doing flight experiments. At this point it is important to say that Santos=Dumont and Langley knew the work that both were doing, unlike the Wrights who worked in secret.

In the 1920s, there was a falling out between Langley and the Wright brothers, as both claimed to have invented the airplane. The Wrights claimed to have performed successful flights in their aircraft, the Flyer, while Langley, who carried out his experiments in the eyes of the scientific commission, did not obtain satisfactory flight results.

Samuel Langley, visiting Santos=Dumont's hangar in Saint-Cloud to follow the experiments with Airship Number 4, on August 8, 1900. Both scientists collaborated with each other to bring flight to humanity. How many important scientific reports have been deliberately hidden from the eyes of science because of the policy of a contract?

In protest against the museum's unwillingness to acknowledge that the Flyer flew, Orville Wright in 1928 sent the Flyer to London with the help of the important pilot Charles Lindbergh, who joined Orville Wright to oppose the Smithsonian Institution, which had always credited Langley with for carrying out experiments within the scientific framework accepted at the time, hurting the inventors' egos.

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The Flyer remained on display at the Science Museum in London until 1942, after which it was sent into storage during World War II alongside the Magna Carta and Crown Jewels.

Shortly after World War II, the US government understood that it was very important to follow the narrative that the Flyer would have been the first to fly and contacted the executors of Orville Wright's will. They struck a deal to bring the Flyer back to America, stating that the Flyer would always be displayed with a tag acknowledging its status as the first true airplane, in response to the Langley controversy, and dismissing the pioneering spirit of any other great inventor. involved in I fly from heavier than air, whoever he is, an American or a foreigner.

I wonder how many other important scientific reports have been deliberately hidden from the eyes of science because of the policy of a contract?

For reasons of alignment with American ideals, the director of the museum felt obliged to accept the terms of the contract for the Flyer to return to the United States, even if this was contrary to the scientific purposes of the serious institution.

THE AGREEMENT

THIS AGREEMENT made by and between HAROLD S. MILLER and HAROLD W. STEEPER as Executors of the Last Will and Testament of Orville Wright, deceased, hereinafter called the Vendors, Parties of the First Part, and THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, hereinafter called the Vendee, Party of the Second Part, WITNESSETH:

WHEREAS there is included in the residuary estate of Orville Wright the Wright Aeroplane of 1903, invented and built by Wilbur and Orville Wright and flown by them at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903, and

WHEREAS it is in the public interest that said plane be pre- served for all time and made available as a public exhibit in an appropriate place and under proper auspices, and

WHEREAS the Probate Court of Montgomery County, Ohio, having jurisdiction over the administration of said estate, after full hearing in a proceeding to which all persons and institutions having any interest under the will of Orville Wright were parties and had submitted themselves to the jurisdiction of the Court, has officially found that the known wishes of Orville Wright will be carried out and the highest and best interest of the estate will be served by recognizing the public in- terest and has accordingly authorized and directed the Vendors to enter into this Agreement,

Santos Dumont's N9 airship is on display at the Museu Nacional do Ar e Sapce alongside the Flyer by the Wright brothers - from a time when science was not silenced by politics.

NOW, THEREFORE, THIS AGREEMENT WITNESSETH:

1. For the consideration hereinafter set forth the Vendors agree to sell and do hereby sell to the United States of America, and agree to deliver to the United States National Museum, Washington, D.C., within the current fiscal year ending June 30, 1949, and subject to the terms of this Agreement, the original Wright Aeroplane of 1903.

2. In consideration thereof the Vendee agrees to pay to the Vendors the sum of One ($1.00) Dollar in cash and to comply with the following requirements:

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(a) Said airplane in to be displayed as a public museum exhibit in the Metropolitan Area of the United States National Capital only, and except as hereinafter pro- vided in paragraph (b) is to be housed directly facing the Main Entrance in the fore part of the North Hall of the Arts and Industries Building of the United States National Museum. It shall never be removed from such public exhibition except as may be required temporarily for maintenance or protection.

(b) If the proper authorities of the Smithsonian Institution or its successors (acting for the United States of America) at any time in the future desire to remove sold airplane to any other building in the Metropolitan Area of the national capital, such removal shall be permitted on the following conditions:

1. That the substituted building shall have equal or better facilities for the protection, maintenance and exhibition of the airplane.

2. That the Wright Airplane of 1903 be given a place of special honor and not intermingled with other airplanes of later design.

3. That such building be not a military museum but be devoted to memorializing the development of aviation,

Langley, Aimé, Santos=Dumont entre outros pioneiros da aviação - competição nos ares, com muito respeito cortesia e amizade em solo.

(c) There shall at all times be prominently displayed with said airplane a label in the following form and language:

The Original Wright Brothers Airplane

The World's First Power-Driven Heavier-than-Air Machine

in Which Man Made Free, Controlled, and sustained Flight

Invented and Built by Wilbur and Orville Wright

Flown by Them at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

December 17, 1903

By Original Scientific Research the Wright Brothers Discovered

The Principles of Human Flight

As Inventors, Builders and Flyers They Further Developed the Airplane

Taught Man to Fly and Opened the Era of Aviation

Deposited by the Estate of Orville Wright.

"The first flight lasted only twelve seconds, a flight very modest compared with that of birds, but it was nevertheless the first in the history of the world in which a machine carrying a man bud raised itself by its own power into the air in free flight, had sailed forward on a level course without reduction of speed, and had finally landed without being wrecked. The second and third flights were little linger, and the fourth last d 59 seconds covering a distance of 852 feet over the ground against a 20 mile wind." 

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Wilbur and Orville Wright

(From Century Magazine, Vol. 76, September 1908, p. 649.)

(d), Neither the Smithsonian Institution or its successors nor any museum or other agency, bureau or facilities, ad- ministered for the United States of America by the Smithsonian Institution or its successors, shall publish or permit to be displayed a statement or label in connection with or in respect of any aircraft model or design of earlier date than the Wright Aeroplane of 1903, claiming in effect that such aircraft was capable of carrying a man under its own power in con- trolled flight.

3. The title and right of possession to be transferred by the Vendors hereunder shall remain vested in the United States of America only so long as there shall be no deviation by the Vendee from the requirements in the foregoing paragraph, and only so long as neither the Estate of Orville Wright nor any person having an interest therein is required to pay and does bear without indemnity an estate or inheritance tax, assessed by the State of Ohio, the United States or any other taxing authority, based upon a valuation of property of the Estate which includes said aeroplane at a value in excess of Gae ($1.00) Dollar.

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4. Upon the failure of the Vendee to remedy any deviation from the requirements set forth in paragraph 2, within twelve months after written specification thereof shall have been given to the Smithsonian Institution on behalf of the United States or upon (e) the final assessment of any state or federal inheritance, succession or estate tax whereby the Estate of Orville Wright or any person or persons having an interest therein shall be required to pay a higher tax by reason of a valuation of said aeroplane for tax purposes in excess of One ($1.00) Dollar, and (b) the omission of the United States or others on behalf of the United States within twelve months of written notice of the final assessment by the person assessed to provide for the payment thereof by appropriations or otherwise, title to and right of possession of said aeroplane shall automatically revert to the Vendors, their successors and assigns. 

5. In the event of a termination of title in the United States by reason of an omission on the part of the United States to provide for the payment of a tax assessment a store said, the ted States shall have an option to repurchase the plane at any time a live years of the tax payment by reimbursing the taxpayer in the mount paid with interest thereon at six per cent from the date yment. Upon the exercise of such option, this Agreement, in ballet the term, shell automatically again become of full force and fort WITNESS the due execution hereof in date this 23-4 day November 1948.

Harold & miller (SEAL)

Executors of the Estate of Orville Wright, deceased! (SEAL)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 

Conclusion

I would very much like to see Santos=Dumont portrayed in the Smithsonian, if the Institute wants to review its position, I am sure that we can create a great exhibition on the achievements of Santos=Dumont, and for this purpose, I am at your entire disposal.