Alberto Santos-Dumont
By flying his dirigible around the Eiffel Tower and landing on purpose, Alberto Santos-Dumont helped convince people that flying machines were not only interesting inventions but that they could be useful in real life.  He also invented the Desmoiselle, a monoplane.  That means it was a plane with one set of wings instead of two sets of wings like a biplane.  The Desmoiselle flew so well that it helped monoplanes become the most common type of plane.