Desc: Who Flew First: Challenging the Wright Brothers: Directed by Tilman Remme. With Ron Arthurs, Nicholas Di Nardo, Talei Howell-Price, Kingsley Judd. Officially, the Wright Brothers flew first in 1903. But the Australian aviation expert John Brown argues that German born Gustave Whitehead flew in Connecticut in 1901. To display the Wright flyer, the Smithsonian Museum agreed that it will never claim that anyone flew before the Wrights. History may not be as certain as we thought.