When it first turned that circle, and came near the starting point, I was right in front of it; and said then, and I believe still, it was . . . the grandest sight of my life. Imagine a locomotive that has left its track, and is climbing up in the air right toward you – a locomotive without any wheels . . . but with white wings instead . . . a locomotive made of aluminum. Well, now, imagine this white locomotive, with wings that spread 20 feet each way, coming right toward you with a tremendous flap of its propellers, and you will have something like what I saw. The younger brother bade me move to one side for fear it might come down suddenly; but I tell you, friends, the sensation that one feels in such a crisis is something hard to describe.
- Amos Ives Root, witness to the first time a heavier-than-air flying machine had flown a complete circle, in the journal 'Gleanings in Bee Culture,' 1904