Quoted from:
(retrieved 2012-09-24)
PARTING THOUGHTS:
Over one hundred years later, the Whitehead legend has more vigor than it did when
Whitehead was actually building airplanes. Even his airplanes seem to be more successful, as the replicas of the No. 21 have shown by flying more than once or twice. You can probably look forward to
continuing claims as reporters look for offbeat stories with which to fill newspapers, magazines, and blogs. That’s a good thing – it creates a lively debate and raises public interest in
pioneer aviation. The more astute of the newly interested will read the primary sources and discover the contradictions and personal agendas that obscure the history behind the legend. They will also
discover that for all the time and energy this debate sometimes absorbs, it is remarkably unimportant. While Whitehead believers insist that he was first to fly, no one claims that his work had any
effect on early aviation or the development of aeronautic science. Even if someone someday produces a photo of No. 21 in flight on August 14, 1901, it will be nothing more than a footnote, a curious anomaly in the history of
aviation. Stella Randolph’s vindication and Albert Zahm’s revenge, if it ever arrives, will seem hardly worth the
lifetimes they invested.
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