Nuance to just be accurate (as nuuumannn mentioned in another thread): Mensier never claimed the Avion n°3 remained firmy earthbound. When he got knownledge of the report of Lieut. Binet who had checked the traces of the wheels on the ground, he wrote (Google translated):
"As I said to you previously, the night coming, we had a rather long journey to return to Versailles, we did not dwell on making observations that we did not regard as essential. You report to me a few days after you had noticed that on certain parts of the route the tracks of the wheels attenuated at first, disappeared completely afterwards, which indicated that during these interruptions the aircraft no longer landed on this ground. This result which I had not checked by myself was not made to surprise me, because I immediately wondered on my return from experience how it was possible that you had traveled the route of about 200 meters which separated the point where you left the track to the place of your fall without its wheels being broken under the weight of the aircraft. In the official report I could not affirm that I had seen flying or that I had noticed from the footprints that he had left the earth."
Mensier was also favorable to Avion n°3's repairs and continuation of the tests. But the Minister (Gal Billot) denied further funds.
Concerning the "self-funded": Ader spent between 1896 and 1897 around 200.000 francs (i.e. converted today around 800.000 Euros) on the Avion n°3.
Ader also studied an Avion n°4 with dual conter-rotating propellers not overlapping and differentially controlled. The steam engine being contractually State owned, he also designed an IC engine for this aircraft. After the termination of the contract by General Billot on March 31, 1898, Ader returned to his automobile and telephone businesses, a lot more profitable
Concerning the IGE/OGE flight, this subtility was studied only after WW1 (NACA TN771, 1934). So it is fairly easy to point this difference nowadays.
BTW (it is just a question, not to restart a polemic): Were the Wrights able to take off without their catapult system?
