NO. 5 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION AND WRIGHT BROTHERS 9 



As to the propriety of testing Langley's machine in 1914, 

 some have objected on the ground that it was a precious 

 specimen, taken from the National Museum to be wantonly 

 subjected to destruction. This is not true. The machine, 

 excepting its engine, was never on public exhibition until 

 1918. In 1904 it was specifically placed by the War Depart- 

 ment ' at the disposal of the Smithsonian for further tests. 

 It had been kept continuously in the shops where it was 

 made from the winter of 1903 until it was taken to Ham- 

 mondsport. 



In 1914 airplane construction had not reached the com- 

 paratively standardized stage of the present day. It was 

 then thought possible that the tandem, dragon-fly type of 

 the Langley Aerodrome had merits which should be devel - 

 oped. There was also the thought that a decisive success 

 might rescue from unmerited ridicule Langley's fame. 

 These, I submit, were circumstances very properly inviting 

 the making of the tests. But I feel that it was a pity that 

 Manly, Dr. Langley's colleague, could not have been the 

 man chosen to make them. 



5. Mr. Wright's feeling that claims in priority of capacity 

 to fly for the Langley machine based on 1914 experi- 

 ments were unjustified and prejudicial to the Wright 

 brothers. 



The claims published by the Smithsonian relating to the 

 1914 experiments at Hammondsport were sweeping. In the 

 Report of the U. S. National Museum for 19 14, page 47/ 



' It is frequently erroneously stated that the Congress appropriated $100,000 

 to Langley for his experiments. The sum of $50,000 allotted to him by the 

 Board of" Ordnance and Fortifications of the War Department was all the 

 public money that he ever had for the purpose. There was no direct Congres- 

 sional appropriation whatever. 



^See also Smithsonian Annual Report, 1914. PP- 9-io and 217-222; also the 

 label of the full-sized Langley machine as first installed in 1918 in the Na- 

 tional Museum, hereafter quoted. 



