My North Carolina Hillbilly roots are showing,
There are a lot of claims, but all of the witnesses, and all of the articles, were published decades after he claimed his flights took place.You can google
Gustave Whitehead
for another twist on the story
The Wrights were the first to convince Wall Street that it was possible for a heavier than air machine to fly, by actually building and flying one publicly. This opened the floodgates of a huge amount of money to aircraft R&D. Many companies soon built better airplanes, while the Wright Brothers did not become significant players in the industry.