Well somebody has to be 'officially' first - the trouble is that the Wrights did it before there was an 'official' governing body so there could not have been 'official' observers !
Surely it is a case of 'reasonable doubt' -
the Wrights took the trouble to take high quality photos to back up their journals/records,we can argue the semantics forever more about various people but I still maintain that nobody has the
proof of flying powered and controlled before the Wrights and some of the other contenders mentioned on this thread could not possibly be considered because there is no photographic evidence and also their machines did not have all the aerodynamic design and flying control surfaces to be able to claim 'controlled'.
As I have said previously even if people are unhappy with the criteria for the 1903 flights - the Wrights 1905 flights were still way ahead of any others !
As to Simplex's accusations about the 1905 flights somehow being 'faked' I must point out that their is a huge fundamental difference between the early Wright a/c and the 1908 model
