Just getting off the ground was not proof of flight. A strong wind could do that.
Sustained, three-axis controlled flight without the help of winds or gravity is the criteria for true flight.
Only the Wrights had developed controlled flight. The rest were no different than throwing a paper airplane across the room.
Seems the best way to prove or refute Whitehead is to see of a model based on his actual design would really fly.
The Wright brothers design looks alot like an airplane, as we know it today...this ‘Condor’ of Whitehead’s doesn’t share that resemblance, and I wonder if could really ‘fly’.
Gustave Whitehead was a Bavarian immigrant who settled in Connecticut. He claimed that he made several powered flights in 1901 and 1902, but there is little documentation. After that, he had money problems, but did make engines for several early airplanes. This story is from the 19-November-1901 New York Evening World.