AdvertisementHistorian Propels Connecticut To Claim 'First In Flight'March 19, 2013Neena SatijafacebookEmailGustave Whitehead and the No. 21. Connecticut claims that Whitehead's half-mile flight in 1901 was the first flight, not the well-known Wright brothers' flight that occurred two years later. (Courtesy Deutsches Flugpioniermuseum Gustav Weisskopf Leutershausen/Historical Flight Research Committee Gustave Whitehead)