Was it recognized as the ground-breaking event that it was? Was it met with skepticism given the fact that nobody had achieved controlled, powered flight before? Was the development of aircraft technology immediately jump-started, or was there a lag?
nobody had achieved controlled, powered flight before?
Just as a side question: Is there any weight to Gustave Whitehead or Richard Pearse achieving flight before the Wright brothers?
There's an episode of The American Experience called The Wright Stuff that covers this topic well. There was skepticism about the Wrights, not helped by the fact that they kept the details of their aircraft secret, for fear of being copied.