1903 in aviation
First piloted powered flight,
- Possibly Richard Pearse at upper Waitohi, in south Canterbury, New Zealand in March 1903.
- Possibly the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in December 1903.
The ambiguity arises from the definition of flight. Richard Pearse travelled some distance in the air sitting in a motor powered contraption, landing on a hedge. However he himself always claimed that it did not count because he was not in control. The Wright Brothers made the first controlled powered flight some eight months later.
