Don't you mean Lissarrague, and this man ? https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Lissarrague
As a Frenchman I don't care whether or not Ader flew in 1897. The truth is elsewhere... there is CONTROLLED FLIGHT, and there is LIFTOFF.
And that's a very important distinction, to keep in mind.
Some people might have achieved LIFTOFF before the Wrights and on longer distances than their 17-12-1903 flight.
From the top of my head
- Ader in 1890 and 1897
- a Chanute alumni in 1897
- Whitehead / Weisskopff in 1901 or 1903 (still doubtful)
- Karl Jatho just before the Wrights (1903)
Yet LIFTOFF in not CONTROLLED FLIGHT. And the Wright brothers, were, without any doubt, the first to achieve regular controlled flight, in 1905.
The French picked the slack from late 1906 but only early 1909 where they able to do much better than what the Wrights had achieved right from 1905. When the Wrights showed at Le Mans in July 1908, they were still well ahead of the pack.
The Wright brothers key to success was they self-funded their project through their bicycle business. They didn't needed a sugar daddy or the military to fund them. and that's paramount, because it allowed them to quietly fail as long as was needed until theiy got a workable machine. All the others ran out of money, or out of "suggar daddy" support, or out of "military" support.
The Wright brothers
- self-funded
- persisted for many years
- achieved controlled flight on top of liftoff.
That was their three big breakthroughs and successes, really.
