ORIGINAL: buzzard bait
French observers of Wilbur's flights at Le Mans gasped in dread and amazement when he banked the plane. It hadn't occurred to anyone else that you could do such a thing. A perfectly normal maneuver we see every day looked like certain disaster to them.
That's a very good point. By the way, I'm not arguing that the Wrights weren't the ones to do the first powered flight. I'm just interested in exploring all of the interesting history surrounding and leading up to the first flight.