The Wright Brothers are famous as the inventors of manned, controlled flight. Their first successful flight, in an airplane of their own invention, as at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903. While people in the United States and Europe had been experimenting in human flight for decades, the Wright Brothers were the first to build an aircraft that used controls to adjust the wings. It was this invention that made sustained, controlled flight in a heavier than air vehicle possible. Though they fought for years for official recognition, as they did their flight experiments in relative secrecy and few people believed what they accomplished was possible, they were eventually granted the recognition they deserved.
