Most of the above made their own unique contribution to aviation. All respect to the Wright Brothers but if they hadn't done it, someone else would almost certainly have done so. von Ricthofen was a famous fighter pilot over a comparatively short period of time. I wouldn't say he was the best by a long chalk as many of his victories were against inferior opposition, usually slow, poorly armed reconaissance aircraft. Not sure what, if anything, he contributed to aviation in general.  ???

Some of the greatest contributions to aviation belong to the designers & developers of the aircraft & various components, like RADAR & GPS, we depend on today. Sorry Tempest but R.J Mitchell is a legend in the UK for one reason - designing the Spitfire. This undoubtedly contributed to the outcome of WWII but I don't think he would be remembered at all apart from this fact.

I would say one of the greatest contributions to aviation over the last 100 years (as far as military aircraft are concerned) was made by Martin-Baker & their ejector seats. If you visit their site there's a counter displaying the number of lives saved to date.  This is currently 7,000, 30 this year alone. http://www.martin-baker.co.uk/

I wouldn't like to single out one person who made the greatest contribution above all others. Most development is done on a team basis & all members contribute in some way. One of my all-time aviation heroes is James H. Doolittle. He's probably more famous for the WWII Tokyo raid these days but as a test pilot he made many pioneering contributions to aviation development & safety. He was the very first pilot to fly solo (including take-off & landing) on instruments alone. Without the risks taken by many incredibly brave but usually unknown test pilots just like him, aviation could not have progressed to where it is today.

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Which...is Frank Whittle...for those who dont know..
And you gotta give a seperate credit to Igor Sikorsky. Where would we be without helicopters 

The greatest contributors to aviation are every little boy and every little girl who has looked to the sky and smiled knowingly.

I'd have to say the Wrights of course but also Werner Von Braun (Did I spell his name correctly?), German inventer of the V2 rocket and also assisted in the design of the SaturnV rockets that would take man to the moon. He also worked on most of the early NASA projects including Gemini, which is why the rockts are painted black and white, to resemble his early V2s (before it was a bomb). The Wrights brought us aviaton but Von Braun took away it's Earthy limits, opening up the "final frontier", if you pardon the Star Trek expression, allowing us to "boldly go where man has gone before".

I should also mention Jim Floyd, Vice-President of Avro Canada, he brought the first jetliner to North America, which was simply called the Jetliner. This changed the way North Americans saw passenger air travel and would later pave the way for the Boeing 707.  Also Howard Hughs for introducing these first North American jets to the market.

Of course the Wrights are important but I cannot vote for them simply because, aerodynamics beginning to be understood in the early 20th century and there were numorous successful flights by others only weeks apart. The Wrights were one of the first to use areodynamic testing and wind tunnels to test there designs, so in reality, they were the first successful designers.

Maybe not so much the ejector seat people but the French bloke who invented the parachute!
He would have to be the greatest contributor to the saving of human life in aviation. That's gotta count for a HUGE contribution. (The ejector seat being just a clever extension, but still pretty useless without the 'chute.

Also the parachute allowed the dropping of equipment and supplies both during wartime and peacetime, especially to flood and famine victims. More saving of human life and easing of suffering through the parachute.

Yep.........I think my conscience vote will have to go to him.
(I'll just jump into google and find out his name........lol

I've just read that Stefan Banic gave the patent rights for his parachute to the Air Corp and the Society for the Promotion of Aviation. He made no money at all.
While at this time, others were making fortunes out of their inventions he chose to donate the device for the betterment of aviation and mankind.

Having read this, I really think this man must get the vote for the most unselfish, greatest contribution to aviation.

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You were right first time.
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I almost mentioned the inventor of the parachute myself. As it was invented & used before the first powered flight I thought it didn't qualify.