There are numerous replicas of the Wright Flyer under construction at the moment for the 1903 anniversary. The best of them is undoubtedly that being built for EAA by The Wright Experience. Go to <a href="http://www.wrightexperience.com" target="_blank">The Wright Experience</a> to find out why - Ken Hyde and his crew are just about the most meticulous replica builders you could ever find.
This is the only replica that will be allowed to fly at Kitty Hawk on 17th December 2003.
As well as the Whitehead and Pearse claims already mentioned, there are claims from Scotland (Preston Watson), Wales (Bill Frost), France (Clement Ader) and Russia (Moshaisky) that I know of. Some of the claimants are sheer make-believe -some (particularly Whitehead and Pearse) merit further investigation but are deeply flawed. Unfortunately national and family pride often obscures the facts in some of these controversies. And there is often a pretty deep ignorance of the facts. For example the person above who writes that the Wrights used catapults until 1908 is just plain wrong. They used it from 1904 onwards as a take off assistance devide (and it worked damn well) but the December 1903 flights were unassisted. Similarly,regardless of the questionable date, the impressive account of Pearse's "flight" neglects to mention something that Pearse himself openly admitted - he flew down a gorge and his point of landing was substantially lower than his point of take off. So, whatever the date, all he achieved was a powered glide.
The case for the Wrights however is solid, well documented and pretty much cast iron. Unlike any of the aforementioned they conducted detailed, methodical, progressive scientific study. I defy anyone to read one of the numerous good biographies that have been written about the Wrights who would deny them their (deserved) place in history. All of us who fly today owe those guys a huge debt.