The Court's Decision on Whitehead
During
the time the Wright brothers sued Curtiss for patent infringement, they
employed an aspiring aeronautical engineer named Grover Loening. This young man
helped them design the Wright Model G Aeroboat, then went on to become one of
the most prolific and respected aircraft designers of the twentieth century. Groening
later recalled the "Patent Wars" and the court's opinion when lawyers presented the possibility that
Whitehead had flown before the Wrights:"The Whitehead projects were carefully examined by the Courts in connection with all the Wright patent suits...These examinations show that Whitehead was completely ignorant and did not in any way envision the two most important features invented and discovered by the Wrights.
"The first was the requirement for the third control laterally – invented by the Wrights.
"The second was the knowledge of how to balance a machine with the center of pressure movement going backwards – discovered by the Wrights."
(From a letter to E. E. Husting from Grover Loening, June 29, 1968.)