One likely location for talk about the first powered flight was at the exhibit of Gustav Whitehead, a German aeronautical pioneer. He was responsible for a display that featured an “aeroplane flying machine.” Besides being too heavy to be effective, its wings flapped like those of a bird. Yet Whitehead claimed that his craft had flown more than1 1/2 miles in 1901, and those who saw his craft or his display, including the cadets, were informed that powered flight had been achieved.