Windsor Locks' New England Air Museum Weighs in on Gustave Whitehead

Were the Wright brothers really the first to take flight?

Connecticut legislators recently passed a bill that proclaims adopted Connecticut resident Gustave Whitehead was the first person to do so, more than two years before Orville and Wilbur Wright, according to the Hartford Courant.

While Whitehead is argued by some to be the first aviator, Michael Speciale, executive director of the New England Air Museum, told the Courant that while the Windsor Locks museum "recognizes Whitehead's achievements in engine technology," it "finds no conclusive proof that he was the first to fly, or ever flew at all."

"We just leave it at that," Speciale added. "I'm not going to editorialize."

The bill has yet to be signed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.