22 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8l 



the machine became properly an exhibit in the National Museum. 

 It was never an exhibit until 1918. 



18. Previous to this date, there had been placed on exhibit in the 

 Museum the two Langley steam-driven models which had success- 

 fully flown in 1896, and the quarter-size model of the large machine 

 equipped with its 3 horsepower radial gasoline engine. The first 

 two of these are approximately, and the latter exactly, one-fourth 

 the linear dimensions of the full-size machine. It is thus clear that, 

 when in the letters from the Smithsonian Institution to Messrs. 

 Wilbur and Orville Wright, of March 7 and April 11, 1910, the 

 request was made for models of their successful machines, it was 

 the hope to have both Langley and the Wright brothers represented 

 in the Museum by exhibits of the same character. 



19. The question whether the original Langley machine of 1903 

 was capable of flight under its own power and carrying a pilot has 

 been a controversial one since, subsequent to the Hammondsport 

 trials of 1914, there was litigation to which the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution was in no way a party, involving infringement, or alleged 

 infringement of the Wright patents by other manufacturers, and 

 since, in 192 1, the English patent attorney for the Wrights published 

 a violent attack, with allegations of fraud, etc.. in connection with 

 the Hammondsport trials. 



20. There are just three questions involved, which must be 

 answered before it is possible to determine the capability of flight 

 of the original Langley machine. These questions are : First, was 

 the power plant adequate? Second, did the machine embody the 

 pro])er aerodynamic principles to enable it to balance and maintain 

 itself in the air? Third, was it sufficiently strong structurally to 

 carry its weight and the stresses due to flying? 



21. As regards the power plant, there seems no question that, in 

 the Hammondsport trials the original Manly engine never developed 

 the power of which it was demonstrated to be capable in 1903. 

 Furthermore, during the Hammondsport trials with the original 

 engine, the weight lifted into the air, including the pontoons, was 

 40 per cent greater than that of the machine as of 1903 with a 

 pilot. Moreover, the bracing and supports to the pontoons and the 

 pontoons themselves must have added materially to the resistance 

 of the machine. If under these circumstances, the Langley machine 

 was capable of arising from the water, which was demonstrated, 

 there is no question in our mind that the 1903 machine had an 

 adequate power plant. 



