Samuel Pierpont Langley
In 1896, Samuel Pierpont Langley, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, had successful flights with several unpiloted models, and his "Number 6" model flew more than . From these successes, in 1898 Langley received grants from the War Department for $50,000 and an additional $20,000 from the Smithsonian, to attempt development of a piloted version.