Actually there were several other pilots(or would be pilots)but only the wright bros got off the ground:). Yep, I would say there's was a far greater achievement than Chuck's. Although Chuck was a great pilot, he would never have broken the sound barrier had it not been for Orville an Wilbur. A pilot I think came closest to their achievement was Charles Lindbergh, he helped build his plane and played a large part in the design of it, not to mention flying across the Atlantic with only a compass and dead reckoning to guide him. Still, without the pioneer work of the Wright Bros, he would never have known how to design a plane let alone fly one.
Did the Wright brothers utilize any of the aerodynamic discoveries of Otto Lilienthal, the German glider designer and pilot?