122 EXPERIMENTS WITH THE LANGLEY AERODROME. 



timioiis drain on the pecuniary resources, which proved ultnnately 

 more fatal than any mishap to the apparatus itself. 



FolloAving the od of September, and after procuring new batteries, 

 short preliminary tests inside the boat were made in order to make 

 sure that there would be no difficulty in the running of the engine 

 the next time a fair opportunity arrived for making a test of the 

 machine in free flight. Something of the same troubles which had 

 been met Avith in the disarrangement of the adjustments of the small 

 engine was experienced in the large one, although they occurred in 

 such a different way that they Avere not detected until they had caused 

 damage in the tests, and these disarrangements were responsible for 

 broken propellers, twisted shafts, crushed bearings, distorted frame- 

 work, etc., which were not finally overcome until the 1st of October. 

 After again getting everything in apparent readiness, there then 

 ensued a period of waiting on the weather until the 7th of October 

 (1903), when it became sufficiently quiet for a test, which I Avas noAV 

 beginning to fear could not be made before the folloAving season. In 

 this, the first test, the engineer took his seat, the engine started Avith 

 ease and was working without vibration at its full power of oA'er 

 50 horse, and the Avord being given to launch the machine, the car 

 Avas released and the aerodrome sped along the track. Just as the 

 machine left the track, those Avho Avere Avatching it, among whom 

 Avere two representatives of the Board of Ordnance." noticed that the 

 machine Avas jerked violently doAvn at the front (being caught, as 

 it subsequently appeared, by the falling ways),^ and under the full 

 poAvei- of its engine Avas pulled into the Avater, carrying with it its 

 engineer. AMien the aerodrome rose to the surface it Avas found, 

 that Avhile the front sustaining surfaces had been broken by their 

 impact with the Avater, yet the rear ones were comparatiA'ely unin- 

 jured. As soon as a full examination of the launching mechanism 

 had been made, it Avas found that the front portion of the machine 

 had caught on the launching car, and that the guy post, to Avhich Avere 

 fastened the guy wires Avhich are the main strength of the front 

 surfaces, had been bent to a fatal extent. 



« Major Macomb, of the Board of Ordnance, states In his report to the 

 Board, that " the trial was unsuccessful because the front guy post caught in 

 its support on the launching car and was not released in time to give free flight, 

 as was intended, but, on the contrary, caused the front of the machine to be 

 dragged downward, bending the guy post and making the machine plunge into 

 the water about ">() yards in front of the house boat." 



i'This instantaneous photograph, taken from the boat itself and hitherto 

 unpul)lished, shows the aerodrome in motion before it had actually cleared 

 the liouse boat. On the left is seen a portion of a l>eam, being a part of the 

 falling ways in which the front wing was caught, while the front wing itself 

 is seen twisted, showing that the accident was in progress before the aerodrome 

 was free to tly. 



