[freebeard]

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-wright-brothers-had-really-good.html

Gustave Whitehead, a German immigrant, successfully flew his plane, known as No. 21 or “The Condor,” early on the morning of August 14, 1901, achieving a flight of some 1.5 miles at a height of 150 feet in the skies over Bridgeport.
...
His U.S. aviation ‘firsts’ numbered more than 20. They included, to name but a few,
aluminum in engines and propellers,
wheels for takeoff and landing,
ground-adjustable propeller pitch,
individual control of propellers (to aid in directional control),
folding wings for towing on roads (resulting in what was possibly the world’s first roadable airplane),
silk for wing covering,
and concrete for a runway.
...
The craft had two engines-a ground engine and a flying engine. Both were fueled by the same calcium carbide (acetylene) generator. The ground engine was used for traveling on the plane’s four wheels to test sites and during the takeoff roll.

At liftoff, fuel to the ground engine was valved off, with all power then going to the main, or flight, engine. The engines were’steam type,’ except that Whitehead used the expansion forces of acetylene instead of the much heavier steam system he had used in Pittsburgh.

Long story (as it goes) short; the world's first airplane and the first flying car?