Self homotopy equivalences of Stiefel manifolds \(W_{n,2}\) and \(V_{n,2}\) (Q791195)

The group \({\mathcal E}(X)\) of self-homotopy equivalence classes of a space X is already known in case X is an h-space which is also a complex with three cells. Here calculations are given for the real and complex Stiefel manifolds \[ V_{n,2}=O(n)/O(n-2)=S^{n-2}\cup e^{n-1}\cup e^{2n- 3}\quad(n\geq 6,\quad n\neq 8), \] \[ W_{n,2}=U(n)/U(n-2)=S^{2n-3}\cup e^{2n-1}\cup e^{4n-4}\quad(n\geq 5) \] both of which are sphere bundles over spheres. The calculations involve a secondary homotopy operation.