Octave Chanute, their mentor, did not believe the Wright brothers who wrote him a few letters (in the summer and autumn of 1904) reporting their progress. This lack of confidence can be seen from Chanute's ironic answers:
- “I am glad to see that the newspapers have not yet found you out.” (1904-05-26, O. Chanute, “Letter to W. Wright”, Chicago);
- “I hope that your immunity from premature publicity may continue.” (1904-06-08, O. Chanute, “Letter to W. Wright”, Chicago);
- “I hope that you will use great caution in your experiments, and will not run into a cow.” (1904-06-25, O. Chanute, “Letter to W. Wright”, Chicago);
- “I hope you will have good luck, and keep out of the newspapers.” (1904-07-04, O. Chanute, “Letter to W. Wright”, Chicago);
- “I expect … to receive a letter from you advising me of your final success.” (1904-07-31, O. Chanute, “Letter to W. Wright”, Chicago);
- “I feel confident that once you get a good start you will make a phenomenal flight.” (1904-08-14, O. Chanute, “Letter to W. Wright”, Chicago);
- “I … congratulate you on the good progress you have made.” (1904-09-05, O. Chanute, “Letter to W. Wright”, Chicago);
- “I also enclose a French clipping which lays down the rules for the $10.000 prize for a power flying machine. This prize you can win if you choose to go to France to do so.” (1904-11-19, O. Chanute, “Letter to W. Wright”, Chicago);
- “I have been thinking it not unlikely that you should be called upon to go to Japan. It could well afford to give you and your brother $100.000 for a few months work in reconnoitring. Santos-Dumont would preferably be called upon by Russia, as that country follows the French lead.” (1904-12-26, O. Chanute, “Letter to W. Wright”, Chicago).
It is evident that O. Chanute highly doubted the two brothers could fly their plane so often without being remarked by the entire press in the United States. The letters are too long to be quoted in full here but, excepting those excerpts which have been already listed a few lines above, O. Chanute appears to simply ignore the impressive progress reports coming from Wilbur, preferring to talk about other things in his replies and looking like somebody who politely answers the letters of a storyteller.
Possibly, the most visible piece of evidence, regarding the lack of faith that Chanute had concerning the, out of the 1904 world, accomplishments claimed by W. Wright, is the fragment of his December 26, 1904, reply where he expressed his thoughts that Wilbur and Orville might be paid $100,000 to do aerial reconnaissance work for Japan, that time in war with Russia which could also benefit of a similar help coming from Santos-Dumont. Honestly, such an ironic answer was absolutely normal after the December 20, 1904, letter of the two brothers which stated they had circled their field 2 1/4 and almost 4 times on November 16 and December 1, 1904, respectively.