Congratulations Nick on the answer for # 1. You were right, the inventor was Henri Pitot, obviously describing a pitot tube. The correct year was 1732. Listen carefully and you'll hear us all cheering in the background :-)
I knew that would be easy, so here is [what I hope is] a harder question!
Question # 2: What is the name of the first person to die in the crash of a powered aeroplane? The date? Anything special about that flight?
Hopefully this is a bit harder! :-)
4 comments:
Thomas Etholen Selfridge (February 8, 1882 – September 17, 1908) was a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army and the first person to die in a crash of a powered airplane.
Nick beat me to it. But he did not answer the whole question.
I agree Lt Selfridge on September 17, 1908.
What was special was it was an demonstration flight for the Army. Also it was not the first crash for Selfridge.
Lt Selfridge was killed by a head injury and in fact this lead to Army pilots wearing crash helmets later.
The crash severely injured Wilbur Wright and in fact I walked with a limp from that time on.
The cause. Propeller failure, hitting a bracing wire.
Congrats to both of you, but the "prize" must go to Charles, with the most complete answer.
I will have to make the next question harder! :-)
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