Samuel Langley: Aviation Pioneer

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Samuel Pierpont Langley paced impatiently on the deck of a houseboat on May 6, 1896. His friend and fellow scientist, Alexander Graham Bell, stood nearby. The previous day, they had taken the train 41 miles from Washington, D.C., to the village of Quantico, Virginia. In a shallow, remote cove on the Potomac River, they watched nervously while workmen made final adjustments to the sixth in a series of experimental steam-powered flying models that Langley called ‘Aerodromes.’ Finally, at 1:10 p.m., with the model’s propellers turning at maximum speed, Langley gave the signal to launch. When the launch lever was pulled, powerful springs catapulted the large model along its 20-foot launching rail. Takeoff!

Instantly, the left forward wing twisted to an acute angle, and the giant dragonfly barrel-rolled into the water with a mighty splash. After the crew pulled the wreckage from the river, Langley examined it. He declared that a truss wire had snapped when it snagged part of the launching apparatus, causing the wing to warp wildly out of alignment. Concealing his disappointment, he ordered immediate preparations to launch the remaining Aerodrome.

The 1890s witnessed an unprecedented period of scientific and technological growth in a variety of fields: Rudolf Diesel patented his engine in 1892, Henry Ford built his first auto in 1893, the Lowell Observatory was erected at Flagstaff, Ariz., in 1894, Guglielmo Marconi invented radio telegraphy in 1895, and hydroelectricity became a reality at Niagara Falls in 1896. Independently, several scientists and engineers began to experiment with powered heavier-than-air flight.

Scientists interested in aviation had to exercise the utmost care, however. This was a field in which reputations and even careers could easily be ruined. Aviators were considered cranks or crackpots by most newspaper reporters, but they were tolerated because of the provocative copy they provided-jumping off cliffs, bridges or barn roofs, emerging from their wrecked machines battered and bloody. Even more dramatic, sometimes they did not emerge at all. The public was generally amused by tales of such adventures because everyone knew that aerial navigation-like perpetual motion-was impossible. The serious enthusiasts were widely scattered: Lawrence Hargrave in Australia, Hiram Maxim and Percy Sinclair Pilcher in England, Louis Pierre Mouillard in France, Otto Lilienthal in Germany, Augustus Herring and Samuel Langley in the United States. Still, these pioneers found a way to communicate-informally united by French expatriate Octave Chanute of Chicago, who corresponded with most of the leading aeronautical inventors. His classic book, Progress in Flying Machines, was published in 1894. In that chronicle, spanning almost 400 years of thought, observation and experiment, Chanute recorded and analyzed the primitive beginnings of flight. It was considered the bible of aerial navigation by enthusiasts of the era.

Langley became interested in astronomy in his youth. With his brother’s help, he labored many hours constructing several small telescopes. Although he had talents in mathematics and mechanics, he was not sent to Harvard like his older brother. Instead, Langley studied as an apprentice in an architect’s office. He moved west in 1857, establishing his own architectural firms in Chicago and St. Louis. By 1864, the Civil War had adversely affected his business, and Langley returned to Boston.

The war over and his architectural business in shambles, Langley decided to switch careers and pursue astronomy. Using family connections, he began a meteoric rise in the field. He was appointed assistant to the director of the Harvard Observatory in 1865. He served as assistant professor of mathematics at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1866, then became director of the observatory and professor of astronomy and physics at Western University of Pennsylvania at Pittsburgh in 1867. That position also included directorship of the Allegheny Observatory-a run-down facility lacking equipment, personnel and funding.

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Tags: Aircraft, Aviation History, Flight Technology, Historical Discoveries

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