November i i, 1922] 



NA TURE 



^37 



S. P. Langley's Pioneer Work in Aviation. 1 



By Prof. L. Bairstow, C.B.E., F.R.S. 



THE work of Prof. S. P. Langley in aviation is ' 

 such a first-rate example of systematic inquiry — 

 of a type rightly called scientific — that no excuse is 

 needed in again directing attention to it. Progress 

 was made step -by -step in the face of formidable 

 difficulties, and no attempts were made to solve the 

 problems of mechanical flight by bursts of brilliance 

 or invention. The scientific method appears to be 

 most suitable for the great bulk of human endeavour 

 and is required in the interpretation and development 

 of striking innovations. 



Langley was a creative investigator and not merely 

 a producer of data. It is probably not wide of the 

 mark to say that his experimental results are now 

 rarely appealed to, yet who can doubt that the whole 

 course of aviation was largely determined by his efforts? 

 Langley's work may be divided into two periods — 

 1887 to 1896, and 1896 to 1903. The end of this 

 period is almost coincident with the earliest successes of 

 the Wright Brothers. The later Hammondsport trials 

 on a modified Langley aeroplane have obscured the 

 real issue, and it is better to leave these out of account 

 as having nothing to do with Langley and his methods. 



The story can be readily told in extracts from the 

 originals ; in 1901 Langley said : 



" And now, it may be asked, what has been done ? 

 This has been done : a ' flying machine,' so long a 

 type for ridicule, has really flown ; it has demonstrated 

 its practicability in the only satisfactory way — by 

 actually flying — and by- doing this again and again 

 under conditions which leave no doubt. 



" There is no room here to enter on the consideration 

 of the construction of larger machines, or to offer the 

 reasons for believing that they may be built to 

 remain for days in the air, or to travel at speeds 

 higher than any with which we are familiar. Neither 

 is there room to enter on a consideration of their 

 commercial value, or those applications which will 

 probably first come in the arts of war rather than 

 those of peace ; but we may at least see that these 

 may be such as to change the whole conditions of 

 warfare, when each of two opposing hosts will have 

 its every movement known to the other, when no 

 lines of fortification will keep out the foe, and when 

 the difficulties of defending a country against an 

 attacking enemy in the air will be such that we may 

 hope that this will hasten rather than retard the 

 coming of the day when war shall cease." 



This note was written before the advent of the man- 

 carrying aeroplane — two years before. Some of the 

 prediction is yet unfulfilled, particularly that as to 

 remaining for days in the air, but it accurately antici- 

 pated war uses before civil. In continuing his story 

 Langley shows that he had no commercial interests 

 in his efforts : 



" I have thus far had only a purely scientific 

 interest in the results of these labours. Perhaps if 

 it could have been foreseen at the outset how much 

 labor there was to be, how much of life would be 

 given to it and how much care, I might have hesitated 

 to enter upon it at all. And now reward must be 

 looked for, if reward there be, in the knowledge that 

 I have done the best in a difficult task, with results 



1 Extracted from an address delivered as chairman of the Royal Aero- 

 nautical Society on October 5. 



which it may be hoped will be useful to others. I 

 have brought to a close the portion of the work 

 which seemed to be specially mine — the demonstration 

 of the practicability of mechanical flight — and for 

 the next stage, which is the commercial and practical 

 development of the idea, it is probable that the world 

 may look to others. The world, indeed, will be supine 

 if it do not realise that a new possibility has come 

 to it, and that the great universal highway overhead 

 is now soon to be opened." 



This passage is of extreme interest ; it emphasises 

 the scientific spirit and the relation of science to 

 industry. Monetary reward did not come to Langley, 

 nor did the merits of his work save him from biting 

 criticism in the press on the failure of his man-carrying 

 aeroplane. Time has probably enabled us to take a 

 more detached and fairer view. These early remarks 

 by Langley prepare us for a note by his assistant, 

 Mr. Manly : 



" In the spring of 1904 after the repairs to the main 

 frame were well under way, the writer [Mr. Manly] 

 on his own initiative undertook to see what could 

 be done towards securing for Mr. Langley's disposal 

 the small financial assistance necessary to continue 

 the work ; but he found that while a number of men 

 of means were willing to assist in the development 

 of the aerodrome [aeroplane] provided arrangements 

 were made for later commercialisation, yet none were 

 ready to render assistance from a desire to assist in 

 the prosecution of scientific work. ' ' On the other hand, 

 Langley " had given his time and his best labours to 

 the world without remuneration, and he could not 

 bring himself at his stage of life to consent to capitalise 

 his scientific work." 



The problem of financing and directing scientific 

 research is seen here as a striking example of the 

 failure of our systems. The troubles still exist in large 

 measure, and much has yet to be learnt before science 

 and industry combine for efficiency and economy. The 

 relation caused comment by Manly to the effect that : 



" Persons who care only for the accomplished fact 

 may be inclined to underrate the interest and value 

 of this record [191 1]. But even they may be reminded 

 that but for such patient and unremitting devotion 

 as is here enregistered, the new accomplished fact of 

 mechanical flight would still remain the wild un- 

 realised dream which it was for so many centuries." 



Throughout his writings, Langley made a clear 

 distinction between two subjects which he called 

 " aerodynamics " and " aerodromics " — a distinction 

 which still exists but is differently described. His 

 division corresponds very closely with the modern 

 expressions " performance " and " control and stability," 

 both being now regarded as branches of aerodynamics. 

 The scientific advisers of the Air Ministry are more and 

 more turning to the study of " aerodromics," on which 

 progress towards safety in flying is seen largely to 

 depend. Its problems are still very difficult. In 

 concluding this note probably the best summary is 

 Langley's own : 



" I am not prepared to say that the relations of 

 power, area, weight, and speed, here experimentally 

 established for planes of small area, will hold for 

 indefinitely large ones ; but from all the circumstances 



NO. 2767, VOL. I io] 



