Whose airplane first achieved powered flight?

On 17 December 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved the first sustained, controlled, powered flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft. That first flight lasted just 12 seconds and covered 37 metres — shorter than the wingspan of many modern airliners. The brothers, who ran a bicycle shop, succeeded where others failed largely because they solved the problem of controlling an aircraft in the air. Their breakthrough launched the age of aviation.