 Although there were previously many conflicting claims over who first invented the aileron and its function, i.e., lateral or roll control, the flight control device was invented and described by the British scientist and metaphysicist Matthew Piers Watt Boulton in his 1864 paper "On Aërial Locomotion".He was the first to patent an aileron control system in 1868.Boulton's description of his lateral flight control system was "the first record we have of appreciation of the necessity for active lateral control as distinguished from [passive lateral stability]... With this invention of Boulton's we have the birth of the present-day three torque method of airborne control" as was praised by Charles Manly.