REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 9 
The Regents also authorized the secretary to appoint an advisory 
committee; to add, as means are provided, other laboratories and 
agencies; to group them into a bureau organization; and to secure 
the cooperation with them of the Government and other agencies. 
In accordance with the above general plan an advisory committee 
was organized at a meeting convened at the Institution on May 23, 
1913. The official status, organization, agencies, resources, and 
facilities of this committee were set forth in a statement in my last 
report. 
The first year’s work of the laboratory was to arrange a com- 
prehensive program of operations, devise ways and means of carry- 
ing on investigations and publishing reports, conduct such active 
experiments as were possible with the means immediately available, 
and to secure and arrange in the library the best aeronautical 
literature. 
The reports of the committee thus far published have appeared 
as individual papers in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 
The first of these recounts the organization of the advisory commit- 
tee and the resources of the Langley laboratory. The first technical 
publication sets forth the results of experiments made at the model 
tank at the Washington Navy Yard. Another report describes the 
organization and equipment of the leading aeronautical laboratories 
of England, France, and Germany. Some of the reports of the 
committee are as yet confidential or incomplete. The library has 
been furnished with the chief aeronautic periodicals and the best 
books thus far published. 
The rehabilitation and successful launching of the Langley aero- 
plane (called “aerodrome” by Prof. Langley), constructed over 
a decade ago, was accomplished in May, 1914. The machine was 
shipped from the Langley laboratory to the Curtiss aeroplane fac- 
tory in April. It was recanvassed and provided with hydroaero- 
plane floats, and was launched on Lake Keuka on May 28. With 
Mr. Glenn H. Curtiss as pilot it ran easily over the water, rose on 
level wing, and flew in steady poise 150 feet. Subsequent short 
flights were made in order to secure photographs of the craft in the 
air. Then Mr. Curtiss was authorized, in order to make prolonged 
flights without overtaxing the bearings of the Langley propulsion 
fixtures, to install in its place a standard Curtiss motor and pro- 
peller. At the close of the fiscal year the experiments were still 
making satisfactory progress. 
The tests thus far made have shown that the late Secretary Lang- 
ley had succeeded in building the first aeroplane capable of sustained 
free flight with a man. It is hoped that further trials will disclose 
the advantages of the Langley type of machine. It may be recalled 
that this man-carrying aeroplane was begun in 1898 for the War 
