On January 5, 1904, the Wright brothers made a statement to the Associated Press regarding their Kitty Hawk flights. They gave an account of the events, and then in closing affirmed that they had achieved their goal: “We packed our goods and returned home, knowing that the age of the flying machine had come at last.”

However, the 1903 Flyer had only performed short, straight-line flights. To successfully market their invention, they had to demonstrate that it could turn and fly over more commonplace terrain than the sandy open spaces of Kitty Hawk. With this goal in mind, Wilbur and Orville refined their design with two more powered aircraft in 1904 and 1905.