First to fly?

Air Classics, Feb 2002 by Jensen, Megan, Pahl, Gerard

Langley, Chanute, the Wrights, and even Herring were very close to resolving all the problems associated with controlled, powered and sustained flight they were just not quite at that threshold - that juncture where all the necessary elements would come together and man would "fly." Herring "controlled" his aeroplane in a manner similar to the way hang gliders are controlled today - by the pilot shifting his or her weight. Power was the problem - there just were no lightweight engines available that were capable of sustained flight. Langley, of course, was experimenting with steam power, and Herring with compressed air. But it would take the Wright brothers to not only figure out a way to control their Flyer in flight, but to also design an engine that would produce enough horsepower to keep the aeroplane in the air - an engine light enough to be carried itself aloft along with the weight of the aeroplane.

Herring's experiments came to an abrupt end on 10 September 1899, when a fire destroyed the Truscott Boat Yard and many of his planes and models. Then, his sponsor, Arnot, died at the young age of 33 on 31 July 1901 - one day after the expiration of a $35,000 insurance policy which would have paid Herring a huge sum for aeroplane development. Herring had spent his inheritance, some $32,000 and his wife's inheritance too, in trying to conquer heavier-thanair flight and many would argue he was successful - as long as it did not have to be sustained and controlled flight. Now he was destitute. Chanute bailed him out and hired him to rebuild the Katydid to fly for the Wright exhibition. Herring admitted that the Katydid was "far outclassed by the Wrights' third glider," according to Eugene Husting.

Herring almost had a job at the Smithsonian, but there was too much bad blood with Langley and the position was not forthcoming. Herring went back to St. Joseph and published a magazine called Gas Power, which was about lightweight gasoline engines for bicycles and hopefully aeroplanes.

Though latter day promoters of Herring's feat argue he was the first to fly, even Herring himself did not make this claim. In the 13 March 1904, issue of the New York Daily News Herring proclaimed that his was not a practical airplane, but only proved that powered flight was "solvable." It has been suggested that perhaps his aeroplane should be described as the first to "have briefly achieved an airborne condition" in the United States as it is recorded in Americana Illustrated in April 1912.

Herring knew he had broken new ground and, as the years went by, he accomplished even more refinement in his machine. In a letter written on 28 December 1903, to the Wright brothers, he suggested the three form a company, combining the best assets of both of their aeroplanes and dividing the profits 1/3 each. He had several arguments as to why the Wrights should agree: "...it seems more than probable that our work is going to result in interference suits in the patent office, and a loss in value of the work owing to there being competition. I do not think litigation would benefit either of us, if we can come to agreements otherwise: because there will be enough money to be made out of it to satisfy all of us."