bejjinks
Banshee has another problem with his flight method. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. I worry about the people on the ground when Banshee flies overhead. If his sound waves are powerful enough to keep him in the air, why aren't they powerful enough to knock any innocent bystander to the ground?
Why does "Not Quite Flight" include a bunch of examples of actual flight? Jetpacks, telekinetic/magnetic/electrostatic levitation, precision wind control, and owning an intergalactic surfboard all apparently don't count as flight. Actually I'm not sure what *does* count as flight. Jetpack no, Iron Man's jetbooted armor yes; Jean Grey's telekinesis-powered levitation no, Superman's mumblemumble-powered levitation yes. Huh?
I propose that the description be edited to explain that actual, sustained, powered flight is not "Not Quite Flight", and the examples trimmed down to match. IMHO, a dude with a jetpack flies, Storm flies, a dude with a glider is Not Quite Flight even if he can stay aloft for hours with the right thermals.
The Wright Brothers used a catapult to achieve flight. The US Navy clinged on to that idea to this day on its Carriers. The latest one doesn't use a steam piston in favor of an electromagnetic rail - called EMALS in the other wiki. Whatever you tie up to that catapult that is not a plane will fly for 30 seconds until it reaches the water in the 'notquiteflight' aspect... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_Aircraft_Launch_System
Now, about the other topic, the Brazilian dispute goes as this in my POV: The Wright Brothers proved the Bernoulli Principle could be used to achieve flight in a manned vehicle, and not just birds could do it. The thing could not achieve flight on its own without a catapult, and could not keep a level flight with enough fuel, but it worked for 30 seconds. But a fully functional and practical airplane that could take off, fly around and land anywhere with plenty witnesses? That was Santos Dumont. The Wright Brothers Flyer was the beta, the 14-Bis was the 1.0 release. The Wright Brothers could have evolved their own plane into something autonomous before Santos Dumont, and there would be no dispute.
Like cars before them, nobody in particular invented the whole car. The internal combustion had more than one inventor (Otto and Diesel, and steam or any form of propulsion not using animals before those), the "chariot" used by Daimler Benz is almost old as dirt and not his invention, despite it took considerable effort to put everything together. So, I think it is simply fair that the airplane can't be attributed to a single inventor, it was a mash of a dozen inventions combined into something useful.
Edited by Gonemad