Facepalm

George Caley helped create aero sciences and developed the forces of lift by the early 1800s. He was a towering figure of English science and couldn't get off the ground so if Real Men of Science weren't able to get it to work then it was hopeless for the common man.

After a century of countless deaths from gliders and bad parachutes, the New York Times clearly chose the easy way and said 'its just too difficult' and was banking on timid traditionalism to keep the statement true.