The only photos of the flights of 1904 – 1905 were taken by the brothers . ( A few photos were damaged in the Great Dayton Flood of 1913 , but most survived intact . ) In 1904 Ohio beekeeping businessman Amos Root , a technology enthusiast , saw a few flights including the first circle . Articles he wrote for his beekeeping magazine were the only published eyewitness reports of the Huffman Prairie flights , except for the unimpressive early hop local newsmen saw . Root offered a report to '' Scientific American '' magazine , but the editor turned it down . As a result , the news was not widely known outside Ohio , and was often met with skepticism . The Paris edition of the '' Herald Tribune '' headlined a 1906 article on the Wrights " FLYERS OR LIARS ? " In years to come , Dayton newspapers would proudly celebrate the hometown Wright brothers as national heroes , but the local reporters somehow missed one of the most important stories in history as it was happening a few miles from their doorstep . James M. Cox , publisher at that time of the Dayton Daily News ( later governor of Ohio and Democratic presidential nominee in 1920 ) , expressed the attitude of newspapermen — and the public — in those days when he admitted years later , " Frankly , none of us believed it . " In October 1904 , the brothers were visited by the first of many important Europeans they would befriend in coming years , Colonel J. E. Capper , later superintendent of the Royal Balloon Factory . Capper and his wife were visiting the United States to investigate the aeronautical exhibits at the St. Louis World Fair , but had been given a letter of introduction to both Chanute and the Wrights by Patrick Alexander . Capper was very favorably impressed by the Wrights , who showed him photographs of their aircraft in flight
Great Dayton Flood
Great Dayton Flood
Wright brothers