The guy was initially successful at 24 years of age, when he invented the safe kerosene-driven blowtorch.
Made a fortune from that, and in spite of him being aerophobic, trying to fly a steam engine and boiler weren't successful at all.
Power/ weight ratio were in fact better than for the Wright Flyer, though wing and propeller design weren't.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flugan