In article ,
(Peter Stickney) wrote:

...(As an aside, that's one of the
things that amazes me about nearly all of the early experimenters,
(Adler, Langley, Maxim), or would-be experimenters (Whitehead, ahd
that bloke in New Zealand whose name escapes me at the moment) All of
them seemed to be of the idea that all they had to do was build their
machine, jump into it, and fly it. It doesn't work that way,
especially with the poor understanding of stability, and lack of
3-axis control that they had. Manley's (Langley's Test Pilot)
swimming improved quite a bit, though)...

Manley also designed and built Langley's gasoline engine, and it
was about as good as they got at the time. IIRC, a 5-cylinder
radial putting out 52hp. Wonder what the Wright's could have
done with that engine.