1914 TESTS OF THE LANGLEY "AERODROME" — ^ABBOT 117 



LAUNCHING AND FLOATS 



32 Launching : Catapult DJouuted on 

 a houseboat. 



33 Floats : Five cylindrical tin floats, 

 with couioal ends, attached to under- 

 side of main frame at appropriate 

 points, and about six feet above low- 

 est part of machine. 



Launching : Hydroplanes, developed 

 1909-1914, attached to the machine. 

 Floats : Two wooden hydroplane floats, 

 mounted beneath and about 6 feet to 

 either side of the center of the machine 

 at the lateral extremities of the Pratt 

 system of trussing used for bracing the 

 wing spars of the forward wings; and 

 one (part of the time two) tin cylin- 

 drical floats with conical ends, similar 

 to but larger than the Langley floats, 

 mounted at the center of the Pratt 

 system of trussing used for bracing the 

 i-ear wings. All of the floats were 

 mounted from four to five feet lower 

 than the floats of the original Langley, 

 thus keeping the entire machine above 

 the water. 



34 ToT^iL Weight: With 

 pounds (L. M. p. 25G). 



35 CENTE2t Gravity : 3/8' ' above line of 

 thrust. 



pilot, 850 Total Weight : With pilot, 1170 

 pounds. 



Center Gravity : About one foot below 

 line of thrust. 



Since I became Secretary, in 1928, 1 have made many efforts to com- 

 pose the Smithsonian-Wright controversy, which I inherited. I will 

 now, speaking for the Smithsonian Institution, make the following 

 statement in an attempt to correct as far as now possible acts and 

 assertions of former Smithsonian officials that may have been mis- 

 leading or are held to ]:>e detrimental to the Wrights. 



1. I sincerely regret tliat the Institution employed to make the 

 tests of 1914 an agent who had been an unsuccessful defendant in 

 patent litigation brought against him by the Wrights. 



2. I sincerely regret that statements were repeatedly made by officers 

 of the Institution that the Langley machine was flown in 1914 "with 

 certain changes of the machine necessary to use pontoons," without 

 mentioning the other changes included in Dr. Wright's list. 



3. I point out that Assistant Secretary Rathbun was misinformed 

 when he stated that the Langley machine "without modification" made 

 "successful flights." 



4. I sincerely regret the public statement by officers of the Institu- 

 tion that "The tests" [of 1914] showed "that the late Secretary Langley 

 had succeeded in building the first aeroplane capable of sustained free 

 flight with a man." 



