The invention of the airplane is commonly credited to the Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright. They made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft on December 17, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Their breakthrough was a three-axis control system, which allowed the pilot to steer and maintain the aircraft's equilibrium, making fixed-wing powered flight possible and practical. The Wright brothers' achievement is recognized as the first successful airplane flight in history.
Other inventors like Alberto Santos-Dumont and Clement Ader also made early contributions to aviation, but the Wright brothers are credited with inventing and flying the first practical airplane.
