Glenn Curtiss proved a few years later that Langley’s machine was perfectly capable of powered flight, carrying a man. The failure of Langley’s last attempt was apparently due to a malfunction in the launching catapult, not due to the design or construction of the plane. The engine he commissioned was considerably better than the Wrights’ was, too.
So the Wrights did, solely by dint of Langley’s bad luck, make the first flight, but they were consummate assholes ever after. Their airplane was intentionally unstable in pitch, which made it extremely difficult to fly, and they kept it a deep dark secret for years while they tried to obtain an all-encompassing global patent on very concept of powered flight itself.
Glenn Curtiss, with backing from Alexander Graham Bell, soon built a far better machine that was inherently stable, and humiliated the Wrights repeatedly whenever there was any sort of head-to-head competition.
The book to read is “Unlocking the Sky” by Seth Shulman.
Let me recommend All Blood Runs Red, about the heroic life of Eugene Bullard. One issue discussed was how much progress in aviation happened in France, since American progress was hamstrung by the legal shenanigans of the Bishop's Boys.
https://www.amazon.com/All-Blood-Runs-Red-Bullard_Boxer/dp/133501666X/