On May 6, 1896, Langley successfully flew aerodrome No. 5 twice. A third successful flight was achieved on November 28 with aerodrome No. 6. Those flights lasted about 90 seconds while covering circular paths of between one-half and one mile. On the basis of those flights, Langley deservedly receives credit for having achieved the world’s first sustained flights of heavier-than-air flying machines, even though they were unmanned.

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With those successes behind him, Langley was ready to embark on his most ambitious undertaking–building a man-carrying flying machine, which would become known as his “Great Aerodrome.” The project would be costly, so he set out to obtain government money. The Spanish-American War erupted in April 1898, so the War Department became interested in his proposed vehicle as an observation platform. The War Department awarded him $50,000 in late 1898 to cover expenses. Langley would use another $23,000 of Smithsonian discretionary funds, which he controlled, before the project was complete.

Because he had a winning approach in the small aerodromes, Langley simply scaled everything up, making necessary allowance for the presence of an onboard aviator. The Great Aerodrome would be catapulted from the top of a new and larger houseboat. It took Langley almost five hours to remove the Great Aerodrome from storage, raise each piece to the top of the shed and fully assemble the machine on the catapult. Summer thunderstorms frequently disrupted those time-consuming preparations.

The development of a suitable engine to power the dual pusher propellers proved to be a major frustration; 41ž2 years passed before a suitable engine was developed by Charles Manly, an engineer on Langley’s team, in the Smithsonian shops. It delivered 52 hp at a weight of approximately 200 pounds. By contrast, the Wright brothers’ 180-pound (and thoroughly adequate) engine delivered only 12 hp. Manly’s engine was the highest performance gasoline engine of its day, and was one of the true achievements of the Great Aerodrome project.

Like the earlier small versions, the Great Aerodrome was again a tandem-wing, dual pusher propeller configuration. It measured 55 feet in overall length and 48 feet in wingspan. The frail, lightweight structure was braced by a complex system of support wires radiating from four guy posts. One engine drove both propellers through an array of shafts and gears. An aviator’s car was added to accommodate the pilot. Rudimentary controls consisted of an engine throttle, a vertical, wedge-shaped rudder for yaw control, and a large cruciform tail for pitch control. Like some other would-be aviators of the day, Langley thought that a human pilot could not react quickly enough to unpredictable upper air currents in order to completely control a flying machine. Hence, he installed no lateral (roll) control–inherent stability was to be assured by wing dihedral. Landing gear was conspicuously absent. The aviator–Manly volunteered for the honor–would just have to know how to swim! There were floats located about the airframe to prevent it from sinking. The Great Aerodrome, including pilot, weighed 850 pounds. By comparison, the 1903 Wright Flyer weighed 750 pounds including pilot. It was a biplane 40 feet in span, 21 feet in overall length, and incorporated a fully tested three-axis control system that, as the Wrights well understood, was the outstanding challenge to manned flight at that time.

In the fall of 1903, everything was ready. By now Langley was feeling intense pressure to show results. He was running out of money, there was no war to sustain government interest in the work, and the media wanted to know what the country was getting for the taxpayers’ money. During the first flight test on October 7, the Great Aerodrome shot off the catapult and immediately nosed down into the Potomac “like a handful of mortar.” The floating debris was gathered up and taken back to the Smithsonian shops. The damage was actually not serious. The aerodrome was repaired and taken out for another flight on December 8. There was no time to tow the houseboat downriver from Washington to Quantico, so the test took place off of what is now Washington National Airport in full view of the press and public. This time, immediately after launch, the Great Aerodrome nosed up, fell over onto its back and crashed into the now cold and icy river. Remarkably, Manly survived unharmed but well chilled. A generous ration of spirits and expletives brought about his swift recovery.

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