Yeah, the Wrights were furious. The whole thing reads like a spy novel at times. Even Henry Ford got involved, on Curtiss’ side. In the late ‘20s the federal government stepped in to force a settlement on the Wrights, which is why there is a Curtiss-Wright Corporation making all sorts of defense stuff today.
Curtiss was a real genius. He invented all sorts of stuff, and almost never bothered with patents. My personal favorite Curtiss invention is the motorcycle twistgrip for throttle control.
Another bone I have to pick with that maroon: The Wrights’ gliders certainly did not make them “the first airplane pilots”.
Just for starters, Otto Lilienthal had been flying hang gliders in Germany for years. The Wrights used a great deal of his data in developing their own “Flyer”.
Octave Chanute was another aviation researcher who was flying man-carrying biplane gliders on the dunes of Lake Michigan in the 1890s. The Wrights’ “Flyer” copied his biplane design.