The Wright brothers and most previous flyers had some things in common: their flights were not witnessed by anyone, they did not take off by their own means, rather using catapults, so they were not airplanes, but 0engine-assisted gliders. They were also unable to manouver and return to the start point, depending entirely on wind.

The first controlled flight, taking of by its own means, returning to the starting point to compensate for wind, witnessed by hundreds of people and recorded on film was that of French/Brazilian Alberto Santos Dumont who rounded the Eiffel tower. Ask anyone in France.

Afterwards, he designed a monoplane remarkably similar to today's ultralights ("La Demoiselle") of which more then 900 were built only for pleasure. Never patented anything.

The same guy also invented the wrist watch, when he couldn't see the time in his pocket watch with his hands on the commands.

But who cares? The technology was there for anyone with the money and guts to go for it.

Luiz