l6 S:>IITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8l 



further tests. Official dispositicjii of that i)art oi the machine belong- 

 ing to the War Department was made on March 23, 1904. when 

 by formal letter of the Board of Ordnance and Fortification, signed 

 by Major General G. S. Gillespie, President of the Board, and 

 addressed to Dr. Langley, the Board stated that " .... all of the 

 material procured for experiments with the aerodrome from allot- 

 ments of this Board will be left in your possession, in order that 

 it may be available for any future work which you may be able to 

 carry on in the solution of the problem of mechanical flight ; unless, 

 of course, the Board of Ordnance and Fortification shall otherwise 

 direct, but until such action be taken there will be no necessity for 

 a separation or distribution of the property so far as the Board is 

 concerned." 



5. It would seem from the above that at that time there was 

 expectation that further tests would be made with the machine. 



6. The machine had in the meantime been cleaned and restored 

 to its original condition, except for the necessary wings and con- 

 trol surfaces. The ribs and cloth covering on the original wings 

 and control surfaces had been so damaged as to require replacement, 

 but the metal fittings were all saved for rebuilding the wings when 

 it might become possible. 



7. The engine was shipped to New York in 1906 and exhibited at 

 the first aeronautical show which was held at the Grand Central 

 Palace by the Aero Club of America. It was then returned to 

 Washington and placed on temporary exhibition in the National 

 Museum, but the rest of the machine remained in the Smithsonian 

 shops and was not then placed on exhibition in the National 

 Museum. 



8. It appears that as early as 1908 the Smithsonian Institution 

 contemplated making further tests with the Langley Flying 

 Machine. This is evident from a memorandum of September 14. 

 1908, signed by Cyrus Adler, addressed to Mr. Rathbun, at the 

 Smithsonian Institution, which reads as follows : 



" September 14, 1908. 

 " For Mr. Rathbun : 



" I had a talk today with Mr. Chanute, the gist of which I should 

 like to put on record. 



" He spoke of Mr. Manly's desire to fly Mr. Langley's flying 

 machine just as it was constructed in order to demonstrate that it 

 could have flown. Mr. Chanute said that in his opinion Mr. Lang- 

 ley's machine could fly just as it was constructed, and this had been 



