What does it mean to fly ?
At first glance, the answer to the question "What does it mean to fly ?" seems to be obvious, yet is it, truly obvious ?
To many, probably most, people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries merely getting into the air through some mechanical means, using a power source or gravity or moving air, would have qualified as "flying."
A surprising number of people managed to make hops of 100 or more feet during that early period, and it can be easily understood that they and anyone who saw them do what they did would have thought they had witnessed a human flying.
Of course, this plays into any discussion of "who flew first."
It's also important to remember that at that earlier time there was no fixed standard as to what constituted human flight, everyone was free to set their own standard.
A quick review of some of the more outlandish designs of that period demonstrates that there was also no fixed standard as to what constituted an aeroplane.
I think it's difficult for us, in the present age, to fully comprehend what all this meant to people in that earlier time.