LANGLEY LEFFMANN. 163 



" nose dive," having been in the air 80 seconds and traveled about 

 3,300 feet, which would mean a rate of about 20 miles per hour. The 

 machine was recovered at once, and being found not injured, a sec- 

 ond trial was made, with somewhat similar result, making three 

 turns at a height of about GO feet, during 91 seconds, over a path esti- 

 mated as carefully as possible at 2,300 feet. Several photographs 

 were taken during these flights. 



These flights, of course, meant much to the patient inventor and 

 his friends. For the first time in the history of the world a heavier- 

 than-air machine had actually flown through the air and preserved 

 its equilibrium without the aid of a guiding intelligence. Moreover, 

 a second trial had been made, thus showing that the first was no 

 mere accident. 



It seems somewhat curious that these striking results were not 

 immediately followed up. No explanation of the suspension of the 

 experiments is given in the "Memoir," except to say that the inven- 

 tor left for Europe, intending to be away until fall. Instructions 

 were given to the mechanicians to remedy certain small defects in 

 the machines. 



On November 27 a trial was made of aerodome 6, but owing to 

 the breaking of a pin, the trial was a failure. In the afternoon of 

 the next day, a successful flight was made, the machine going in a 

 curved path of about three-quarters of a mile in 105 seconds, a rate 

 of about 30 miles per hour. "Finis coronat opus." 



Obviously the success of the aerodromes led to the thought of the 

 construction of a man-carrying machine. Langley hesitated on ac- 

 count of the many duties in connection with his official relations with 

 the Smithsonian Institution, yet the longing to take the final step was 

 too attractive to his scientific mind and soon took possession of him. 

 Ten years had been passed in laborious experiment, full of disheart- 

 ening difficulties, and he thoroughly realized that the construction of 

 a machine large enough to carry a man would be a mighty labor, 

 but his spirit was no flickering flame like that of light straw, but 

 determined and devoted to the object of science — the discovery of 

 truth. 



In undertaking the construction of a large aerodrome, Langley 

 was much influenced by President McKinley, who had become im- 

 pressed with the value of the instrument in war. It will not be 

 necessary to set forth here the official procedures which led up 

 to the work, but merely to state that in the latter part of 1898, an 

 appropriation of $50,000 was made for the purpose through the 

 Board of Ordnance and Fortification. 



Langley had always recognized that one of the most important 

 problems in a flying machine is the motor, which should be light, 

 powerful and capable of maintaining its action for a long time on 



