"Lawrence Dillard" wrote

Not intending a flame war, but I seem to recall that an Australian inventor
got his powered, piloted, heavier-than-air a/c into sustained, controlled
flight to a safe landing even before (perhaps by years) the Wright
Brothers. His feat, however, did not get the publicity it deserved.

Without his building a wind-tunnel, nothing he did could be understood,
or repeated.

The Wright Brothers were the first people to understand the physics required
to create lift, and thrust. Having flown gliders for several years, they developed
a method for controlled flight. The only thing they didn't figure out first, was that
ailerons beat wing-warping, and regardless of any lawsuit, they missed the boat
on that.

All other claims to previous controlled flight are bogus.