In the specific case you have chosen as an exemplar, George Cayley established some important principles before the Wrights (as the latter acknowledged), and th

In the specific case you have chosen as an exemplar, George Cayley established some important principles before the Wrights (as the latter acknowledged), and they themselves succeeded where others failed by doing the science that they needed to cross the threshold. Subsequent development often followed from advances in the science of aeronautics, sometimes in very counter-intuitive ways - for one example, look up Whitcomb's area rule.