Langley Aerodrome

Aerodrome is a word coined by Smithsonian Institution Secretary Samuel Pierpont Langley and applied to a series of engine-driven unmanned and manned tandem wing aircraft of Langley's design that were built under his direction by Smithsonian staff in the 1890s and early 1900s. The term is derived from Greek words meaning "air runner".

After a series of unsuccessful tests beginning in 1894, Langley's unmanned steam-driven model "number 5" made a successful 90-second flight of over half a mile about 25 miles an hour at a height of 80 to 100 feet on May 6, 1896. In November model "number six" flew more than 5,000 feet. Both aircraft were launched from a houseboat in the Potomac River near Quantico, Virginia, south of Washington, D.C.

A full scale Aerodrome, constructed with a United States War Department grant of $50,000 and piloted by Charles M. Manly, was tested in the same way on October 7 and December 8, 1903. Nine days after the December 8 attempt the Wright Brothers flew into history with their four successful flights at Kitty Hawk North Carolina. On both attempts the Aerodrome failed to achieve flight and crashed into the Potomac River a few seconds after launch. Manley was pulled unhurt from the water each time. The Aerodrome's internal combustion engine generated 53 horsepower, about four times that of the Wright brothers' gasoline engine of 1903. However, Langley had not properly appreciated the problems of calculating stress on an airframe or controlling an aircraft, and the Aerodrome broke up on launch in both tests. No further tests were made by Langley, whose experiments became the object of scorn in newspapers and the U.S. Congress.

With Smithsonian approval, Glenn Curtiss extensively modified the Aerodrome and made a few short flights in it in 1914, as part of an unsuccessful attempt to bypass the Wright Brothers' patent on aircraft. Based on these flights, the Smithsonian displayed the Aerodrome in its museum as the first heavier-than-air manned, powered aircraft "capable of flight". This action triggered a feud with Orville Wright (Wilbur Wright died in 1912), who accused the Smithsonian of misrepresenting flying machine history. Orville backed up his protest by refusing to donate the original 1903 Kitty Hawk Flyer to the Smithsonian, instead exiling it to Science Museum of London in 1928. The dispute finally ended in 1942 when the Smithsonian published details of the Curtiss modifications to the Aerodrome and recanted its claims for the aircraft.

Two of Langley's scale model Aerodromes survive to this day. Aerodrome No. 5, the first heavier-than-air craft to fly, is on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. Aerodrome No. 6, is located at Wesley W. Posvar Hall, University of Pittsburgh. Aerodrome No. 6 dates to 1896 and was restored in part by the Pitt engineering students. Fabric on the wings and tail is the only new material, however, the tail and several wing ribs were rebuilt using wood provided by the Smithsonian Institution and dating from the same time period. [ cite book |
last = Goetz
first = Al
title = Pitt Magazine
pages = Fall 2007; pp. 3
year = 2007
publisher = University of Pittsburgh Office of Public Affairs] The man-carrying Aerodrome from 1903 survived after being rebuilt & used by Curtiss in 1914 and was converted back to Langley's original 1903 configuration by the Smithsonian Institute's National Air Space Museum and resided at the Paul Garber Facility in Suitland, Maryland for decades. Today the 1903 man-carrying Aerodrome, or what remains of it, is displayed at the National Air & Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.

References

Tobin, James. "To Conquer The Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight". Free Press division of Simon & Shuster, Inc. 2003