Third point: the Wright 1903 flier was not the first powered aircraft to lift
off the ground using engine power alone. That honor goes to Sir Hiriam Maxim's
1896 aircraft. Maxim's plane wieghed almost 8,000 lbs (yeah, eight Thousand
pounds!) and was powered by twin 180 HP steam engines. However, it lacked the
critical element that would make it successful. The one thing that the Wrights
alone had developed... a fully-functional, three-axis flight control system.
And they had it by Oct. 8, 1902.

Some fun reading about that at http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/maxim.html

Ed Wischmeyer