Aerial Locomotion 



large model of an aerodrome driven 

 through the air by a steam-engine under 

 the action of its own propellers. I was 

 myself a witness of the memorable ex- 

 periments made by Professor Langley on 

 the 6th of May, 1896, with this large- 

 sized model, which had a spread of wing 

 of about 14 feet. No one who witnessed 

 the extraordinary spectacle of a steam- 

 engine flying with wings in the air, like a 

 great soaring bird, could doubt for one 

 moment the practicabiHty of mechanical 

 flight. I was fortunate in securing a 

 photograph of this machine in full flight 

 in the air, so that an automatic record of 

 the achievement exists (page 4). The 

 experiment realized the utmost hopes and 

 wishes of Professor Langley at that time : 



"I have brought to a close," he says, "the 

 portion of the work which seemed to be spe- 

 cially mine — the demonstration of the prac- 

 ticability 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 does not realize that a new 

 possibility has come to it, and that the great 

 universal highway over head is now soon to be 

 opened." 



But the world was not satisfied with 

 this position. It looked to Professor 

 Langley himself to carry on the experi- 

 ments to the point of actually transport- 

 ing a human being through the air on an 

 aerodrome like his model ; and so, with 

 the aid of an appropriation from the War 

 Department of the United States, Pro- 

 fessor Langley actually constructed a full- 

 sized aerodrome, and found a man brave 

 enough to risk his life in the apparatus — 

 Mr Manley, of Washington, D. C. 



langley's Experiments with his large 



MACHINE 



Great public interest was aroused ; but 

 Professor Langley did not feel justified 

 in giving information to the public, and 

 therefore to foreign nations, concerning 

 experiments undertaken in the interests 

 of the War Department. His own dislike 

 to premature publicity cooperated with 

 his conscientious scruples to lead him to 

 deny the newspapers the opportunity of 



witnessing the experiments. But the 

 newspapers insisted upon being repre- 

 sented. The correspondents flocked, to 

 the scene, and camped there fbi-" weeks, 

 at considerable expense to their papers. 

 They watched the house-boat containing 

 the aerodrome by day and by night, and 

 upon the least indication of activity 

 within, newspaper reporters were on hand 

 in boats. After long delay in hopes of 

 securing privacy it was at last decided to 

 try the apparatus ; but the newspaper 

 representatives, embittered by the at- 

 tempts to exclude them, were bringing 

 the experiments into public contempt. 

 They nicknamed the apparatus "The 

 Buzzard," and were all ready to presage 

 defeat. 



Two experiments were made ; but on 

 both occasions the apparatus caught in 

 the launching ways and was precipitated 

 into the water without having a chance to 

 show what it could do in the air. The 

 newspapers immediately announced to 

 the world the failure of Professor Lang- 

 ley's machine and ridiculed his efforts. 

 The fact of the matter is that the ma- 

 chine was never tried, and that there was 

 no more reason for declaring it a failure 

 than for deciding that a ship would not 

 float that has never been launched. After 

 having witnessed the successful flight of 

 the large-sized model of 1896, I have no 

 doubt that Professor Langley's full-sized 

 aerodrome would have flown had it been 

 safely launched into the air. 



When the machine was for the second 

 time precipitated into the water it was 

 not much damaged by the accident. Pro- 

 fessor Langley, of course, was more 

 anxious about the fate of his intrepid as- 

 sistant than of his machine, and followed 

 Mr Manley into the house-boat to ascer- 

 tain his condition. During this tempo- 

 rary withdrawal from the scene of the 

 catastrophe the crew of a tugboat grap- 

 pled the frail framework of the sub- 

 merged aerodrome, and in the absence of 

 any one competent to direct their efforts 

 they broke the machine to pieces, thus 

 ending the possibility of further experi- 

 ments without the expenditure of much 



