8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IO3 



Since I became Secretary, in 1928, I have made many efforts 

 to compose the Smithsonian-Wright controversy, which I inherited. 

 I will now, speaking for the Smithsonian Institution, make the follow- 

 ing statement in an attempt to correct as far as now possible acts 

 and assertions of former Smithsonian officials that may have been 

 misleading or are held to be detrimental to the Wrights. 



1. I sincerely regret that the Institution employed to make the 

 tests of 1914 an agent who had been an unsuccessful defendant in 

 patent litigation brought against him by the Wrights. 



2. I sincerely regret that statements were repeatedly made by 

 officers of the Institution that the Langley machine was flown in 

 1914 "with certain changes of the machine necessary to use pontoons", 

 without mentioning the other changes included in Dr. Wright's list. 



3. I point out that Assistant Secretary Rathbun was misinformed 

 when he stated that the Langley machine "without modification" 

 made "successful flights". 



4. I sincerely regret the public statement by officers of the Insti- 

 tution that "The tests" [of 1914] showed "that the late Secretary 

 Langley had succeeded in building the first aeroplane capable of 

 sustained free flight with a man." 



5. Leaving to experts to formulate the conclusions arising from 

 the 1914 tests as a whole, in view of all the facts, I repeat in substance, 

 but with amendments, what I have already published in Smithsonian 

 Scientific Series, Vol. 12, 1932, page 227: 



The flights of the Langley aerodrome at Hammondsport in 

 1914, having been made long after flying had become a common 

 art, and with changes of the machine indicated by Dr. Wright's 

 comparison as given above, did not warrant the statements pub- 

 lished by the Smithsonian Institution that these tests proved 

 that the large Langley machine of 1903 was capable of sustained 

 flight carrying a man. 



6. If the publication of this paper should clear the way for Dr. 

 Wright to bring back to America the Kitty Hawk machine to which 

 all the world awards first place, it will be a source of profound and 

 enduring gratification to his countrymen everywhere. Should he 

 decide to deposit the plane in the United States National Museum, 

 it would be given the highest place of honor, which is its due. 



