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Posts Tagged ‘Bridgeport’

First in Flight

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Photo: The Library of Congress
Gustave Whitehead and his daughter beside the contraption he called Plane No. 22.

Connecticut wants you to know that it is First in Flight. Not Ohio, not North Carolina. And not because of the Wright brothers. Nope, the state contends, Gustav Whitehead was first — on Aug. 14, 1901.

As Kristin Hussey writes in the NY Times, Connecticut legislators argue about many things, but there is one topic on which everyone is in agreement — where the first airplane was flown.

“In 2013,” writes Hussey, “a well-regarded aviation publication surprised historians by declaring that Mr. Whitehead, a Bridgeport resident, had flown two years before Orville and Wilbur Wright skimmed the dunes of Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina in 1903.

“ ‘Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied,’ read the headline in the publication, IHS Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft. ‘Whitehead has been shabbily treated by history,’ it said.

“Mr. Whitehead, a German immigrant, flew his own aircraft above Bridgeport and nearby Fairfield on Aug. 14, 1901, climbing 50 feet into the air and traveling more than a mile, according to the article, which was written by Paul Jackson, the editor of Jane’s. …

“Within months, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat, had signed a measure changing the honorees of a state holiday called Powered Flight Day from the Wright brothers to Mr. Whitehead. Last spring, lawmakers passed a resolution that formally recognized Connecticut as first in flight.”

Needless to say, fans of the Wright brothers are not taking this lying down. Read about the controversy here.

Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times
Andy Kosch, a high school teacher from Connecticut, led a group that built a replica of Mr. Whitehead’s plane and flew it successfully. 

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“Turnaround Arts” Touches a School

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on December 21, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Here’s another nice story about using the arts to inspire kids who are turned off by school in troubled districts.

Writes Patricia Cohen at the NY Times, “Stationed in front of one of his large self-portraits, the artist Chuck Close raised his customized wheelchair to balance on two wheels, seeming to defy the laws of gravity.  The chair’s unlikely gymnastics underlined the points that Mr. Close was making to his audience, 40 seventh and eighth graders from Bridgeport, Conn.: Break the rules and use limitations to your advantage.

“The message had particular resonance for these students, and a few educators and parents, who had come by bus on Monday from Roosevelt School to the Pace Gallery in Chelsea for a private tour of Mr. Close’s show. Roosevelt, located in a community with high unemployment and crushing poverty, recently had one of the worst records of any school in the state, with 80 percent of its seventh graders testing below grade level in reading and math.

“Saved from closure by a committed band of parents, the school was one of eight around the country chosen last year to participate in Turnaround Arts, a new federally sponsored public-and-private experiment that puts the arts at the center of the curriculum.”

Read about the reactions of the students — and more at the NY Times.

Photograph: Kirsten Luce for the NY Times
The artist Chuck Close giving a private tour of his show to students from Bridgeport, Conn.

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