To expand on that a bit, the Wrights clearly needed to solve multiple basic problems in order to produce a working airplane. To do this, they first identified t

To expand on that a bit, the Wrights clearly needed to solve multiple basic problems in order to produce a working airplane. To do this, they first identified the problems, then conducted a directed research and development program to solve them, one by one. Having solved them, they combined the results into a working airplane. Nobody else was doing that at the time. Without the Wrights, individual inventors might each solve one of the problems independently, and then a later individual puts it together. The Wright approach was itself fundamentally innovative.