I've heard Henri Coanda flew a little time before the Wright brothers somewhere close to Paris but his success wasn't recognized by the scientific community because the Paris scientific community didn't go to witness the event because they thought it was impossible to do. Is there any truth to this?
I can't comment on Coanda, but it seems unlikely that the scientific community would believe a flight to be impossible. Manned gliders had been in use since 1849 (in that case a child flying in a glider built by Sr George Cayley), and viable means of control through weight-shift (Lillienthal) or rudders (Cayley) had been demonstrated. Controlled and powered flight was seen as a difficult incremental improvement, not as impossible.