Not really accidental, but at the end of the (American) Civil War, the Navy had to decide which of its junior officers it would keep and which would be mustered out. One group was stationed at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. Being that they were there with not much to do, if they did not look busy some senior office would find something for them to do. Being Canoe U, there were workshops and a couple of warehouses of "stuff" brought back from the Orient by Admiral Dewey that had been stored away -- among them were hundreds of pieces of bamboo and several bolts of silk cloth.
They started out screwing around making kites. After that bored them, they made turbines of several varieties. They connected the two areas of interest together and made a heavier than air craft powered by a turbine fed from steam stored in an insulated bamboo & silk "bottle." Their first flight ran five miles down the Chesapeake Bay. They brought in a wagon-mounted boiler, refilled the "bottle," and flew back to Annapolis. On the return flight, they screwed up and crashed. Two of the people were killed and the other two were seriously injured. This was 1867.
I worked a project at "Canoe U" many years ago. The project manager taught military technology/history at West Point. He dug out the records of this "incident" and had fun taking money from us by getting us to be on when the first heavier than air powered flight had been made. However, they flew more than 5 miles each way with a passenger load of 4 one way and 3 the other. Compare that to the minor exercise of the Wright Brothers (who were so bad at making airplanes that the U.S. Army kicked them out of the company that the U.S. Army had funded into existence after only three years)!
