> It seems that the Wright brothers did not fly in public until well after Santos-Dumont had. That's correct. The Wrights were secretive because they wanted to

> It seems that the Wright brothers did not fly in public until well after Santos-Dumont had. That's correct. The Wrights were secretive because they wanted to ensure they had the patents locked up before disclosure. But they were smart about ensuring there was a solid trail of evidence of thier invention. Santos Dumont did not have 3-axis controls, though. Neither did the European airplanes that were developed. At one point, the Wrights crated their flyer and went to Europe to demonstrate it. The European airplanes were very difficult to turn (because there were no roll controls). The Wrights just blew them all away by flying in tight, controlled graceful circles. The Europeans immediately redesigned their machines to incorporate roll control.