People were still trying to invent the airplane five years after the Wrights had flown.
The story of one such attempt August 8 was published in August 9, 1908 by the Inter-Mountain Republican newspaper in Salt Lake City.
Here is the article:
Opined That He Also Could Sail The Air
Finds His Wings Are Good Life Preservers But Not For Flying
Arioch Wheeler of Mianus, Conn., after weeks of reading about Count Zeppelin and Henri Farman, who are conquering the air, opined that he, Arioch, would make a flight, so he constructed for himself a pair of paper wings and today he suddenly left his turnip patch and made a wild dash for Hiram Johnson’s barn.
He clambered to the roof and blithely adjusted the wings.
Arioch then posed gracefully, took in the wind situation and then laid his course across the Mianus River, a stream 12 feet from the barn.
Some farmers were near by and saw the man perched on the roof. They yelled to him to come down but he merely stretched out his hands and shrieked,
” I am Count Zeppelin. I am going to fly.”
In an instant Arioch had flung himself into the air — and also into the Mianus River. The wings kept him afloat till he was rescued.
He has been advised to patent his wings and dub them life preservers.