What UFO reports predate the invention of flight?

Start from the top of the list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reported_UFO_sightings

>Since there are numerous reports spanning decades and even dating to the 19th century, before manned flight,

Manned flight dates to 1783, and engine-powered flight to 1851. Did you mean heavier-than-air flight?

Yes. Heavier than air flight. Thanks for that correction. Basically any report before Kitty Hawk of a vehicle flying under its own power through the air that was witnessed by more than one person. There are several on record. It's a long interesting history that likely will never be explained to anyone's satisfaction since some of the reports from the late 19th century described airships that were operating low enough that observers could plainly see people through the windows of the airship. It seems to me that large, multi-passenger airships would've been loudly announced and advertised by those who built them since people even then were inclined to line up shouting "take my money" for the opportunity to be one of the first to have a ride.

> Basically any report before Kitty Hawk of a vehicle flying under its own power through the air that was witnessed by more than one person.

Remember that the Kitty Hawk flights were done "secretly" with the hired photographer and some locals being the only 3rd parties present. The Wright brothers were back in Ohio flying advanced versions of their plane over farm fields before much publicity came of it, and even then almost nobody believed it. It was only when they took a plane to France and flew it around Le Mans that people truly believed.

EDIT - it was Le Mans, not Paris :)

I didn't know that. I assumed that the flight generated enough publicity that they became instantly famous.

It was reported, but not believed. Even over the course of the few years back in Ohio, the Dayton newspapers wrote stories and reporters witnessed flights, but the rest of the world thought it was all lies.

EDIT - it should probably be pointed out that the Wright brothers didn't think that powered flight, in and of itself, was all the useful without a method to control the aircraft. That's what they really worked on and really their most important contribution. There were a lot of people working on flying machines all over the world, but the Wright brothers had radically different ideas on how to control the aircraft (and ultimately they were correct). So there was a lot of incentive for others in the flying community to discount their success until it was too late to deny it.