Actually Hiram Maxim's aircraft ( minus some of its wing panels) generated so much lift that it actually broke its restraining rails. A very much underrated engineer in popular literature.
Surely the real issue is the evolution of the practicable aircraft.
Well over a decade after the Wrights' experiments, during the first World War the U.S.A. was still incapable of generating any significant indigenous aviation product, having to rely almost totally on European engines and airframes for its front-line aircraft.
Even by 1908, at the Le Mans meeting, European aircraft were freely taking-off and landing on wheeled undercarriages. The Wrights were using ground support in the form of a primitive falling weight catapult to get airborne and were still basically landing on skids.
Last edited by Haraka; 31st May 2014 at 13:17.
Reason: sp