The invention of the airplane is commonly credited to the American brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright. They achieved the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft on December 17, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Their breakthrough was not just the flight itself but the development of a three-axis control system that allowed effective steering and balance during flight, which is still the basis for airplane control today. Though other pioneers like Alberto Santos-Dumont in Brazil and Clement Ader in France also made significant contributions to aviation, the Wright brothers' achievement is widely recognized as the true invention of the airplane.