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Langley’s greatest success came in 1896 with the first successful heavier-than-air flight of substantial size. On May 6, the 14’ long Aerodrome No. 5 was launched from atop a houseboat in the Potomac River in Stafford County, Virginia and flew approximately 3,300 feet in 90 seconds before gently coming to rest in the water.
The Wright Flyer takes off on it’s first flight, December 1903. ~ image detail ~. Author: S. P. (Samuel Pierpont) Langley (1834-1906) Title/Imprint: Experiments in Aerodynamics. Smithsonian Institution: Washington, D.C. , 1891. Full details about this book from the Smithsonian Libraries' Catalog.
Parts of the collection were separated at undetermined dates from the institutional records of Langley's time as Secretary (now held by the Smithsonian Institution Archives [SIA], as the Samuel P. Langley Papers, 1867-1906, Record Unit 7003) for several purposes: Design papers and notes from Langley's aerodrome project were used for restoring ...
Langley Aerodrome #5 (replica), Washington, DC, 1896. Professor Samuel P. Langley was one of the first major aeronautical figures in America. In 1892 he began experimenting with large models powered by steam engines, and on May 6, 1896, his "Aerodrome #5" made the first successful flight of any powered flying machine.
Samuel Pierpont Langley was the Smithsonian’s third Secretary, from 1887 to 1906. Born in 1834 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, he attended the Boston Latin School. He took up "new astrophysics" and was appointed director of the Allegheny Observatory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He established the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and developed ...
Samuel Pierpont Langley died in 1906 after a series of strokes, a broken and disappointed man. Glenn Curtiss flying the highly modified 1903 Langley Aerodrome over Lake Keuka. Years later in 1914, the Aerodrome finally achieved flight, and was flown several hundred feet by Glenn Curtiss, as part of his attempt to fight the Wright Brothers ...
