112 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1942 



tion during the time the machine was being reconstructed and tested. 

 In the reconstruction the machine was changed from what it was in 

 1903 in a number of particulars as given in Dr. Wright's list of dif- 

 ferences which appears later in this paper. On the 28th of May and 

 the 2d of June, 1914, attempts to fly were made. After acquiring speed 

 by running on hydroplane floats on the surface of Lake Keuka the 

 machine lifted into the air several different times. The longest time 

 off the water with the Langley motor was approximately five seconds. 

 Dr. Zahm stated that "it was apparent that owing to the great weight 

 which had been given to the structure by adding the floats it was nec- 

 essary to increase the propeller thrust". So no further attempts were 

 made to fly with the Langley 52 HP engine. 



It is to be regretted that the Institution published statements re- 

 peatedly ^ to the effect that these experiments of 1914 demonstrated 

 that Langley's plane of 1903 without essential modification was the 

 first heavier-than-air machine capable of maintaining sustained human 

 flight. 



As first exhibited in the United States National Museum, January 

 15, 1918, the restored Langley plane of 1903 bore the following label : 



THE ORIGINAL, FULL-SIZE 

 LANGLEY FLYING MACHINE, 1903 



For this simple label others were later substituted containing the claim 

 that Langley's machine "was the first man-carrying aeroplane in the 

 history of the world capable of sustained free flight." 



Though the matter of the label is not now an issue, it seems only 

 fair to the Institution to say that in September 1928, Secretary Abbot 

 finally caused the label of the Langley machine to be changed to read 

 simply as follows : 



LANGLEY AERODROME 



THE ORIGINAL SAMUEL PIERPONT LANGLEY 

 FLYING MACHINE OF 1903, RESTORED. 



Deposited by 

 The Smithsonian Institution 



301,613 



This change has frequently been overlooked by writers on the 

 controversy. 



In January 1942, Mr. Fred C. Kelly, of Peninsula, Ohio, cormnuni- 

 cated to me a list of differences between the Langley plane as tested 

 in 1914 and as tested in 1903, which he had received from Dr. Wright. 



» Smithsonian Reports : 1914, pp. 9, 219, 221, 222 ; 1915, pp. 14, 121 ; 1917, p. 4 ; 1918, pp. 

 3, 28, 114, 168. Report of U. S. National Museum, 1914, pp. 46 and 47. 



