"the Wright Brothers were secretive. They were trying to perfect the Flyer to get a military contract and didn't want to publicize the advances they were making"
This alone makes one wonder if they deserve the recognition they get. Many people made great personal sacrifices to publicly make a point related to flight or something else. Whereas the Wright brothers played their secret mission game, Traian Vuia carried his plane all over the Europe from Lugoj to Paris (using the transport infrastructure of that time, mind you) only to publicly show and test it. That obviously happened long after the incremental development of the plane itself, considering the repeated postpones due to financial constraints (as all the required expenses were pretty much his own).
This alone makes one wonder if they deserve the recognition they get. Many people made great personal sacrifices to publicly make a point related to flight or something else. Whereas the Wright brothers played their secret mission game, Traian Vuia carried his plane all over the Europe from Lugoj to Paris (using the transport infrastructure of that time, mind you) only to publicly show and test it. That obviously happened long after the incremental development of the plane itself, considering the repeated postpones due to financial constraints (as all the required expenses were pretty much his own).