Abstract
THE Smithsonian Institution, Washington, has recently issued a pamphlet which settles a controversy that has existed for many years. It is universally acknowledged that the Wright brothers were the first to make sustained flights in a heavier-than-air machine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903. Earlier in the same year a machine built by Samuel Pierpont Langley was reported to have flown, and this was exhibited in the Smithsonian Museum with the label that this “Was the first man-carrying aeroplane in the history of the world capable of sustained free flight”. These reported flights had never been officially observed, and in the light of later aerodynamic knowledge it was debatable whether the machine could have accomplished sustained flight under its own power. In order to settle this matter, the Institution reconditioned the machine in 1914, when it was flown successfully, but the fairness of the test was challenged on the grounds that vital alterations were introduced during this rebuilding, which improved its aerodynamic and structural characteristics sufficiently to allow it to be capable of flight. It was claimed that without these changes, based on knowledge that was not available in 1903, the machine could not have flown. These claims have since been upheld by experts, and the Smithsonian Institution has now issued a statement on the results to Dr. Orville Wright and changed the wording of the label on the Langley machine accordingly. Although the detailed explanation has only just been issued, the description on the exhibit was altered in 1928. As a result of this misrepresentation, the Wrights lent their original machine to the Science Museum at South Kensington, where it has been exhibited for many years. The Smithsonian Institution has expressed a hope that Dr. Wright will now consider bringing it back to the United States, where it will be given “the highest place of honour in the United States National Museum”.
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The First Man-Carrying Aeroplane. Nature 151, 192 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151192a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151192a0