who were their competitions?
Clément Ader, Gustave Whitehead, Richard Pearse, and Karl Jatho.
Wright brothers
First powered flight claims are made for Clément Ader, Gustave Whitehead, Richard Pearse, and Karl Jatho
who invented the first aeroplane in the world The Wright brothers what are the names of the brothers? Wilbur  and Orville. what are they by profession? Aviation pioneers. did they have any formal education or degree? Both brothers attended high school, but did not receive diplomas. were the brothers in any feud with someone? Yes, with Samuel Pierpont Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. what was the feud about? Samuel Pierpont Langley, experimented for years with model flying machines and successfully flew unmanned powered fixed-wing model aircraft, but two tests of his manned full-size motor-driven Aerodrome however, were complete failures. Nevertheless, the Smithsonian later proudly displayed the Aerodrome in its museum as the first heavier-than-air craft "capable" of manned powered flight, relegating the Wright brothers' invention to secondary status and triggering a decades-long feud with Orville Wright, whose brother had received help from the Smithsonian when beginning his own quest for flight.
wiki:5418151
Wright brothers [SEP] Competing claims
First powered flight claims are made for Clément Ader, Gustave Whitehead, Richard Pearse, and Karl Jatho for their variously documented tests in years prior to and including 1903. Claims that the first true flight occurred after 1903 are made for Traian Vuia and Alberto Santos-Dumont. Supporters of the post-Wright pioneers argue that techniques used by the Wright brothers disqualify them as first to make successful airplane flights. Those techniques were: a launch rail; skids instead of wheels; a headwind at takeoff; and a catapult after 1903. Supporters of the Wright brothers argue that proven, repeated, controlled, and sustained flights by the brothers entitle them to credit as inventors of the airplane, regardless of those techniques.