NYT predicted a 10-million-year wait for airplanes. The Wright brothers proved it wrong in 69 days.

People have been utilizing air travel more now than ever. It provides comfort and has connected one corner of the world to another. However, the idea of air travel was deemed next to impossible until these two brothers decided to change the world forever. The New York Times, a long-celebrated newspaper, declared that traveling by air was a far-fetched idea in the 20th century, per Big Think. However, the Wright brothers proved this prediction wrong just a few weeks later. They developed an idea whose impact will last for centuries to come.

An article titled "Flying Machines Which Do Not Fly," published in The New York Times on October 9, 1903, predicted that humans would fly on planes in 1 to 10 million years. This was followed by the plight surrounding the trials of Langley Aerodromes at aerial navigation. The newspaper ridiculed the prospect of manned flights and said it would take millions of years of combined and continuous efforts of experts to make it happen. The newspaper emphasized how previous failed attempts at developing airplanes and their consequences. Taking a dig at those intrigued by manned planes, they concluded, "To the ordinary man, it would seem as if effort might be employed more profitably."

Nine weeks later, after the newspaper's confident prediction, on December 17, 1903, the first-ever powered airplane built by the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Piloted by Orville and controlled by Wilbur from the ground, the first manned airplane made a 12-second flight and traveled 36 m (120 ft), per the National Air and Space Museum. They proved the prediction of The New York Times wrong but the newspaper wasn't the first to disregard the possibility of airplanes.

In 1901, a rear-admiral and engineer-in-chief, George W. Melville also called the goal of flying an aircraft a "vain fantasy," in the article titled "The Engineer and the Problem of Aërial Navigation." According to Melville, "There probably can be found no better example of the speculative tendency carrying the man to the verge of the chimerical than in his attempts to imitate the birds or no field where so much inventive seed has been sown with so little return as in the attempts of man to fly successfully through the air."

Even after the Wright brothers shut down these criticisms, their project was declared as a creation that would only benefit the rich. Renowned astronomer William H. Pickering said that airplanes helping passengers commute across oceans was just a "wholly visionary" idea and "the expense would be prohibitive to any but the capitalist who could use his own yacht." However, the contribution of these two visionary brothers paved the way for what would become a successful aviation industry. In today's times, almost 6 million people use airplanes as a mode of transportation every day, per Gay Travel. The aviation industry is growing faster than ever and now, only the sky is the limit.