RU-vid channel Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles does a great video on the Wright brothers, explaining why they truly are the first to achieve powered flight, debunking the arguments from "in vogue" contrarians. Emphasized both in this video, and in Greg's, are that the Wright's had the best propeller, by far, and 3 axis of control. Their wing warping was the predecessor of ailerons, which none of their contemporaries had, nor even contemplated ! Competitors only found them necessary, AFTER seeing the Wright's planes, in flight.
On the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers flight, a replica of the plane was made and as it slid down the rail to achieve take-off speed, it immediately collapsed. It could not have collapsed any faster. 100 (fill-in-the-blank, gerund form), years later they could not reproduce what the Wright's had done. My respect for the Wrights went up exponentially. Although he is not given much exposure in the English speaking world, anyone who has a sincere interest in early flight should look-up Alberto Santos-Dumont.
