Evening star., 1942-08-30
BY John Clagett Proctor.

What a wonderful sight 1t is to see
an airplane soaring in the sky, almost.
If not even more skillfully than the
turkey buzzard that so often excited our
curiosity In youth. Indeed. half CEN
tury ago many learned men and great
many scientists doubted the possibility
Of emulating this bird. and yet, today.
the reports are astounding OF the part
being played in the war for universal
freedom, as it engages in battles in
way never before dreamed of, though
now an everyday occurrence.
But how many people know that the
first heavier-than-ai flying machine
had its beginning right here in WASH
ington through the scientific researches
and experiments conducted by that
celebrated physicist and astronomer,
Samuel Pierpont Langley, secretary OF
the Smithsonian Institution from 1887
to 1906 where nearly all OF the work
upon his aerodrome models and the
man-carrying machine of 1908 was per-
formed.
Prof. Langley-or Mr.. Langley as
oNSS>N>~S
Prof. Spencer Fullerton Baird as secre-
tary of the Smithsonian, came to the
Institution just prior to the death of his
predecessor in 1887 and the writer still
recalls his keen interest in testing the
air currents at that early date, with
small toy-like propeller, such as boys
used years ago, and maybe even now,
Ia vxJith ri
and the blade thrown into the air, as
the string was quickly drawn and the
propeller set in motion.
Langley's First Plane Flight
From this early beginning and the
years of scientific application which
followed. came the successful flight of
the Langley Aerodrome No. 5, on May 6,
1896, when for the first time in the
history of the world large man-made
airplane model supported itself in sus-
tanned dynamic fight. This epoch
making event took place at Whitewater,
Va, on the Potomac River, near Wash
tance of 5000 feet and stayed in the
cir for a minute and half. second
flight, the same day, was equally sue
cessful, thus demonstrating beyond
doubt the soundness of Langley's prin-
ciples. And although the question has
been raised as to who invented the
first man-carrying airplane. no one has
ever attempted, so far as the writer is
aware, to deny that Langley made the
first sustained flight with a heavier
than-air model flying machine. And 1t
can also be said that his scientific re-
searches in aerodynamics and his in
defatigable efforts in flight investiga-
tions and experiments, at least inspired
all the flying wonders of the air we are
witnessing today.
These successful flights encouraged
Mr.. Langley to greater things. and when
the War Department, during the Span
ish-American War, realizing the military
value of aerial observation, asked him to
undertake what had been the goal OF
inventors since the beginning OF the
world, namely, the making of a man
carrying airplane, he naturally agreed to
do so, and soon he had under way
larger machine patterned after the small
aerodrome, which was ready for its test
in the latter part OF 1903 Experiments
were made with 1t on October 7 and on
December 8following, but in neither case
was the machine successfully launched.
The first Of these experiments took
place at Whitewater, on the Potomac
River, and here the rear end of the plane
is said to have caught on a projecting
piece of the launching device, with the