A Patent is NOT PROOF that the invention is new!
It just indicates that the Patent Office's searches have not found any evidence of the invention having existed previously, and therefore (according to them) it is "Novel".
Many Patents have been challenged in Court.
At the time of the Wright Brothers the US Patent Office had far lower standards than many European Patent Offices, did not search foreign Patent records and technical publications (as held in the Royal Aeronautical Society), and granted thousands of Patents for inventions which already existed, or were "Trivial" or "Obvious".
I hold UK and US Patents and am familiar with the process and history of Patents.