Another person to have claimed to have flown the first heavier-than-air airplane in level flight was Russian naval officer Alexander Mozhayski who started test flights in 1882. His aircraft was 45' long and had a wingspan of 79'. It was powered by 2 steam engines driving a single prop, total hp was 30 for a weight of 2100 lbs! While the aircraft could hop, it failed to fly in 1882-3 but a claim was made that in 1884 by using a ramp the airplane did briefly fly over Krasnoye Selo at 25 mph at between 60-100 ft altitude. That claim made it into a newspaper and later the 1916 Military Journal, but it was false. The ramp enabled the plane to get into the air with a small gain in altitude, but then a descent back down to the ground. The 30 hp was not enough to suatain lift and the design was unstable for sustained level flight. A second attempt in 1885 by the mechanic resulted in a broken wooden support and a wing collapse. After that, new steam engines of total 50 hp were being made but were unfinished when Mozhayski died in 1890. The Soviet TsAGI (equivalent to NASA for flight testing) examined the claim and the design for the airplane. They disproved that the aircraft ever flew but noted that with the new engines and a headwind that it could have flown for a short distance in level flight. When Mozhayski died the plane was dismantled and disappeared...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/Mozhaysky's_airplane_1st_flight_1882.jpg/300px-Mozhaysky's_airplane_1st_flight_1882.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/1974._Самолет_Можайского.jpg/300px-1974._Самолет_Можайского.jpg