But they did put it all together, and their method of control was patented!
As I read this thread, I'm wondering about patent law. Pretty clearly, of all the pioneers, the Wrights were the first to successfully put it all together, even though their aeroplane was very marginal. But the next great burst of development, including settling on the definitive tractor/rear-elevator form, happened in France (though part of it by a Portuguese speaker, oh simplex1, if you really are a Portuguese speaker from Alaska).
Meanwhile the Wrights were being very secretive, and then very litigious, in defence of Intellectual Property. The secrecy is a bit surprising if the US patents were, in those days as now, first-to-invent rather than first-to-file. This would suggest that even at the beginning of the 20th c., patent law was hindering progress, rather than fostering invention, which is what it's supposed to be about. Or were the Wrights just a pair of tail-pipes?