World News 05-12-2003 who: Reverend Burrell Cannon what: Built an aeroplane a year before the Wright brothers, say locals where: Pittsburg, Texas when: Yesterday snippet: December 17th, the centenary of the Wright brothers’ first controlled flight, "has little meaning to the 4,500 residents of Pittsburg", reckons The Times. The pastor of Pittsburg’s Baptist Church kept his 1902 invention a secret for fear it would fall into the hands of foreign spies, but now enough evidence has been gathered to at least prove that Cannon’s “plane” -"which boasted large, fabric-covered wings and a petrol engine that powered four sets of paddles" - really did exist, and, more importantly, fly. Meanwhile The Telegraph reveals that the Wright brothers themselves almost never got their plane off the ground. [... more]

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