The Wright Brothers are credited with the first manned flight at Kittyhawk in 1903. 

Actually, theirs was not the first manned flight. Otto Lilienthal flew over 300 times in the 1890s.  Clement Ader flew a full 50 metres in 1890.  Sir George Cayley flew a glider in 1853.  Chinese, Arabic, Greek, Persian, Indian, Russian, African pioneers are said to have achieved flight imany years before. What the Wright Brothers really achieved was to solve the problem of motorised flight: in other words, they were the first to describe the problem correctly.

For them the problem was not to lift a manned aircraft off the ground, using a powerful engine and a very light framework. The problem is to control the apparatus once it is airborne.  The Wright Brothers were originally bicycle makers. They recognized the problem as being one of balance and control. And they built the first wind tunnel, where they could study the performance of the wings under different conditions.

They were able to analyse the situation that had caused the enterprising Otto Lilienthal to crash on his last flight. Other more celebrated engineers mocked the Wright Brothers.  The Smithsonian Institute had a budget many times larger. What could bicycle craftsmen working on a shoe-string budget possibly contribute? 

When we look back on those pioneering efforts, it is not the Wright Brothers that make us chuckle; it’s the old sepia films of hopelessly optimistic craft with ridiculously light frames collapsing on the runway. 

Define the problem correctly, build a prototype, obtain the feedback, identify the source of the problem, and you are on your way to success on your project.