Who flew first

It is good to see John J. Montgomery's contribution honored by this movie. While taking liberties with reality it is entertaining and is basically true to the facts of his life.

People often are of the mistaken belief that the Wright brothers were the first to fly - they were not. Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi of Turkey, is credited with the first fully successful manned glider flight in 17th century.

There were even possibly creditable reports of powered flights before the Wright brothers. Clement Ader of France is reported to have flown a heavier-than-air, fixed wing, powered airplane.

But where all of the previous attempts failed, and the Wright brothers succeeded, was in "controlled" powered flight. In their notebooks they detail that this was a significant focus; many had flown but none had controlled powered flight.

Wikipedia has a great discussion of this subject - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_flying_machine