What was the first air craft?

Answer 1

If gliding (vastly reducing fall speed and travelling long distances) counts, the first manned air craft is a kite launched from a tower bearing Yuan Huangtou, an imprisoned former emperor of China. Hang gliders were invented in the early 11th century, though the pilot testing it fell and broke both of his legs.

The first hot air balloon flight (the first craft that could generate sufficient lift to go upward that was capable of carrying a human) was either Bartolomeu de Gusmao in Portugal on August 8th, 1709 or Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier and Marquis d'Arlandes in France on November 21st, 1783. The Portugal flight is rarely recognized outside of Portugal.

Gas balloons (blimps, dirigibles, etc) were first flown in Devember 1st, 1783.

There are eyewitness statements of powered airplane flight by Gustave Whitehead on August 14, 1901 and Richard Pearse, March 1903, both of whom predate the more recognizable Wright Brothers flight in December 17, 1903. (The difference is that there is photographic evidence of the Wright machine in action, and that their flight was controlled and sustained as well as powered.)

The first helicopter was the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, first flown in 1936 by Ewald Rohlfs. Only two of these craft were ever produced, and both have been lost since World War 2 (likely destroyed).

(That said, there are also numerous untested designs from earlier on - Leonardo DaVinci, for instance, made several technical drawings of ornithopters, which use flapping wings in a motion comparable to birds to achieve flight. He also designed a hang glider he was convinced was flight worthy, but he never tested it)

Source: numerous wikipedia pages.