Connecticut Air & Space Center

08/28/2026

Don't forget! Planes & Pilates is happening TOMORROW at the museum! Both, Early Boarding and First Class tickets are SOLD OUT! BUT there are still some tickets left for General Boarding, so hurry and purchase your tickets NOW!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/planes-x-pilates-tickets-1998072301039

08/19/2026

Thanks to CASC board member Len Roberto for talking this morning about this most important National Aviation Day today!

Today is National Aviation Day and Connecticut has a lot to celebrate. From Igor Sikorsky developing the world’s first practical helicopter in Stratford, to Pratt & Whitney engines powering commercial airliners and military aircraft, the state has helped shape the way the worl...

08/17/2026

We're excited to announce a unique new event this year hosted by Pilates by Kaila instagram.com/pilatesbykaila called:

PLANES + PILATES ✈️!
A 45-minute Pilates on the tarmac surrounded by aircraft, followed by an all-inclusive wellness experience featuring:

✈️ Pilates
💆‍♀️ Massage
💐 Flower Bar
✨ Fragrance Bar
🥤 Welcome Juice
🍓 Açaí Bowls
🏷️ Custom Luggage Tags
🎧 Live DJ + Social Hour
🎁 Curated Goodie Bags
👜 Exclusive Giveaways

📍 225 B Main St, Stratford, CT
📅 August 29 | 11AM–2PM
🤍 All-white attire encouraged
🎟️ One ticket. Everything included.

Limited boarding passes available. Tickets are LIVE NOW. ✈️
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/planes-x-pilates-tickets-1998072301039?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

08/15/2026

LEGACY:
Connecticut Governor John N. Dempsey designated August 14th as "Gustave Whitehead Day" in 1964 and 1968. A large headstone replaced the bronze marker of his grave at a formal dedication ceremony on August 15th 1964 attended by elected officials, members of every branch of the armed services, Clarence Chamberlain – famed aviator, CAHA, the 9315th Air Force Reserves Squadron, and surviving members of his family, his three daughters, and his assistant Anton Pruckner, commemorating Whitehead as "Father of Connecticut Aviation".[

The "Aviation Pioneer Gustav Weißkopf Museum" was established in Leutershausen, Germany, in 1974. A memorial fountain and sculpture commemorating Whitehead's "aviation first" was dedicated in May 2012 and was located on a traffic island at the intersection of Fairfield Avenue and State Street in Bridgeport It was removed around 2023. On June 25, 2013, Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy signed into state law House Bill 6671 recognizing Gustave Whitehead as the first person to achieve powered flight.

REPLICAS:
To show that the No. 21 aircraft might have flown, Connecticut high school science teacher, pilot, and CASC founder Andy Kosch, built a replica of the craft, using existing photos and blueprints created by experts working with O'Dwyer in a project called "Hangar 21". The replica used modern ultralight engines since no one knows how Whitehead operated his original engines. On December 29, 1986, Kosch flew the replica and claimed a distance of about 330 feet at six feet above the ground.

On February 18th 1998, another reproduction of No. 21 was flown 500 m (1,600 ft) in Germany. The director of the aerospace department at Deutsches Museum noted that such a replica was not proof that the original flew. The 1998 reproduction used modern research and materials such as fiberglass, and had modern engines, along with other changes.

Make sure to stay tuned to WSHU Public Radio for all the details!

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08/14/2026

Thanks again to News 8 for adding us into there 8 Things to Do series for this weekend's Whitehead Day event tomorrow! We'll see you tomorrow!

This weekend, fathers are building friendships, a decades-old coastal tradition is back, and a big water race returns to Hartford. Summer festivities are far from over in Connecticut. Here's your eight things to do.

08/13/2026

LATER CAREER:
Whitehead's main source of income was always designing and building engines. In 1904, he attended the St. Louis World's Fair and displayed an aeronautical motor. Air Enthusiast wrote: "Weisskopf's ability and mechanical skill could have made him a wealthy man at a time when there was an ever-increasing demand for lightweight engines, but he was far more interested in flying." Instead, Whitehead only accepted enough engine orders to sustain aviation experiments. In 1908, Whitehead and aviation pioneer George A. Lawrence formed the Whitehead Motor Works, that built lightweight two-cycle water-cooled engines in three sizes: 25hp, 40hp and 75 hp. One of his engines was installed by aviation pioneer Charles Wittemann in a helicopter built by Lee Burridge, but failed to fly. Whitehead's own 1911 studies of vertical flight resulted in his own 60-bladed helicopter, which, unmanned, lifted itself off the ground.

BUSNIESS FAILINGS:
Whitehead's business practices were unsophisticated to say the least, and he was sued by a customer, resulting in a threat that his tools and equipment would be seized. He hid his engines and most of his tools in a neighbor's cellar and continued his aviation work. In 1912 Gustave lost an eye in a factory accident and also suffered a severe blow to the chest from a piece of factory equipment. Despite these setbacks, he exhibited an aircraft at Hempstead, New York, as late as 1915. He continued to work and invent, and designed a braking safety device, an "automatic" concrete-laying machine, and other inventions. Around 1915 Whitehead continued to worked in a factory as a laborer and repaired motors to support his family.

DEATH:
On October 10th, 1927, after attempting to lift an engine out of a car he was repairing, Gustave Whitehead suffered a heart attack. He stumbled onto his front porch and into his home, where he preceded to collapse onto the floor and died. He was only 53 years old. Thus the life of one of the world's most controversial and fascinating aviation pioneers slipped quietly into history.

Make sure to stay tuned to WSHU Public Radio for all the details!

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08/11/2026

NEWSPAPER REPORTS:
To date, over five-hundred newspaper reports of Whitehead’s 1901/1902 flights have been found, many of them front-page news. The reports came from all inhabited continents. The weekly newspaper, Bridgeport Herald, whose Chief Editor Richard Howell was present, reported Whitehead’s flight on August 18, 1901. The article included an etching (lithograph) based on a photo he’d taken.

WHERE IS THE PHOTO?!:
The Bridgeport Daily Standard reported on October 1st, 1904 that original pictures were exhibited in the window of Lyon and Grumman's hardware store on Main Street in Bridgeport, showing "Whitehead in his aeroplane about 20 feet from the ground and sailing along".

A photo was displayed in the 1906 First Annual Exhibit of the Aero Club of America at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City which showed an unpiloted Whitehead aircraft in flight. The photo was mentioned in a January 27th, 1906 Scientific American article which stated that the walls of the exhibit were covered with a large collection of photographs showing the machines of various inventors. The report said, "No photographs of ... man-carrying machines in flight were shown... A single blurred photograph of a large birdlike machine propelled by compressed air constructed by Whitehead in 1901 was the only other photograph besides that of Samuel Pierpont Langley's scale model machines of a motor-driven aeroplane in successful flight."

In 2013, Australian researcher John Brown analyzed a panoramic photo from the 1906 Aero Club Exhibit and concluded that one of the images was "the long lost photo" of Whitehead in flight. The claim was disputed by aviation historian Carroll Gray, who provided a clear archival photograph of the glider: "The California", built by John J. Montgomery suspended between trees at a California park in 1905.

Make sure to stay tuned to WSHU Public Radio for all the details!

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08/09/2026

Arrival in Bridgeport
By May of 1900 Whitehead and Louis Darvarich were once again moving. This time from Pittsburgh to Boston. But they soon instead changed their destination to Bridgeport, CT. Press coverage of Whitehead from newspapers in June 1901 reported his flight-test of an acetylene-powered, monoplane with sandbags in the cockpit.

August 14th, 1901 Flight
Two months later, on August 14, 1901, he invited the press to witness his first, successful, manned, powered flight. Whitehead's aircraft was "roadable". It's wings could be folded and it had wheelpower for accelerating over the ground which could also be used for driving on roads. Leaving Bridgeport shortly after midnight, he, his helpers and the press drove the aircraft under its own power 1.5 miles to the same Fairfield site as the previous tests. After rigging and testing the machine unmanned in the pre-dawn light, Whitehead took off at dawn, flying half a mile at a height of up to 50 feet, making a shallow turn along the way to avoid a clump of chestnut trees.

After the August 14th flight
Whitehead continued to make short flights over the next five months. He then developed a more powerful, diesel engine, calling his new plane “No. 22” and performing even longer flights, one including a full circle. The circular flight was made over the shallows between Charles Island and Bridgeport on Jan. 17, 1902.Affidavits and statements by 17 people bear witness to the many powered flights made by Whitehead between August 1901 and January 1902.

Make sure to stay tuned to for all the details!

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08/07/2026

New Designs:
Whitehead moved to Buffalo on Nov 24, 1897, married, and began studying Count d’Esterno, whose 1864 aircraft patent bears similarity to Whitehead’s 1901 design. Whitehead’s notes show a more modern variable pitch propellor blade design and wings airfoil for his future aircraft. He chose one with an arc near the leading edge rather than a symmetrical arc, and also filled out the concave area underneath the wing. Between October 1897 and March 1898 Whitehead exhibited his triplane design, reminiscent of Hargraves' box-kites, which still still had a symmetrical airfoil, and a stabilizing cruciform tail; A significant aviation invention often credited to Augustus Herring or early French inventor, Penaud.

The Pittsburgh Flight:
Whitehead soon moved to Pittsburgh in 1898 and completed a new aircraft design by early December 1899 that was described as having: 4 bicycle wheels mounted under the small 5 ft x 2ft canvas skiff boat, 14 ft wide foldable wings, and two small steam 6 h.p. engines drove 2 propellers, 1 at the front and 1 at the rear. An affidavit from Louis Darvarich (friend and assistant of Whitehead) claimed the two men made a motorized flight of about half a mile and a height of 20 to 25 ft into a brick building. But experts believe more that the men were probably conducting a high speed taxi test down the Halket St. hill, with Whitehead and Galomboshe onboard. Before they realized their craft clipped a "dry bridge" near the intersection of Wilmot & Bates street, and then hit a three-story brick apartment building just beyond at ground level. In a later interview, Whitehead himself referred to the flight as "more or less successful". Because of this incident, Whitehead was purportedly forbidden by the police to perform any more experiments in Pittsburgh. Though its more likely due to exploding pressure tanks during testing in Whitehead's backyard - apparently at night. Whitehead and Darvarich both decided to move once again to Bridgeport, Connecticut, a hub of modern industry and innovation to find factory jobs.

Make sure to stay tuned to WSHU Public Radio for all the details!

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