The Smithsonian is a very big and important museum in the United States. During the early years of flight, many people around the world in different countries were trying to make a machine that would fly. They all read the same research, and experimented with various ideas, and none of their first flights were very long or very far. Most of them ended in a crash.

Orville Wright was very keen that he and his brother would be called the first, and when the Smithsonian wanted to have their first aircraft to display in their museum, he wouldn't let them until they agreed to say that the Wright Brothers were the first in the world to fly.

Paragraph 2 (d) of the Agreement reads:

"Neither the Smithsonian Institution or its successors, nor any museum or other agency, bureau or facilities administered for the United States of America by the Smithsonian Institution or its successors shall publish or permit to be displayed a statement or label in connection with or in respect of any aircraft model or design of earlier date than the Wright Aeroplane of 1903, claiming in effect that such aircraft was capable of carrying a man under its own power in controlled flight."

"Failure to observe this condition by the Smithsonian would result in a return of the "Flyer" to the vendors, according to paragraph 4 of the contract.

Many people are angry about this, because in order to get hold of the plane, the Smithsonian was condeming all other early aviation pioneers, including Richard Pearse of New Zealand to obscurity.