|
 Samuel Pierpont Langley was an American astronomer, physicist, inventor, and aviation pioneer who designed what he hoped would be the first powered, piloted, heavier-than-air aircraft.
Samuel Langley was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts on August 22, 1834. His father was a wealthy merchant descended from Cotton Mather, a Puritan minister who is best remembered for his role in the Salem witch trials. As a boy, Samuel Langley often used a telescope that his father had given him to study the constellations in the night sky. With help from his brother John, young Samuel also built astronomical instruments and began reading astronomy texts by the age of nine. Langley's formal education began at the prestigious Boston Latin School and ended with his graduation from Boston High School in 1851. Although he never attended college, Langley found work as an engineer and architect before serving as an assistant at the Harvard College Observatory. In 1864, the 30-year old Langley left for Europe with his brother John and traveled the continent for nearly two years, visiting various museums. Samuel Pierpont Langley returned to the United States in 1866 and was appointed assistant professor of mathematics at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he managed a small observatory. A year later, Langley left Annapolis for the Western University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh) and became director of the Allegheny Observatory and a professor of astronomy.
 Towards the end of his 20-year tenure in Pittsburgh, Samuel Langley invented the bolometer, a device for measuring incident electromagnetic radiation, and earned the Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences for his contributions to solar physics. He also became interested in aerodynamics and aeronautical research. Arguing that air resistance was not as great as Isaac Newton had believed, Langley claimed that steam engines could sustain heavier-than-air flight. After experimenting with small rubber models and gliders, Langley designed a series of larger, powered models called "aerodromes" that featured wide-braced, tandem wings and a stabilizing, cross-shaped tail. Publication of his research resulted in $70,000 worth of grants from the U.S. War Department and the Smithsonian Institution, an organization that Langley joined as secretary in 1887. Subsequent experiments with steam-powered aerodromes were successful enough that Langley hired a test pilot, Charles M. Manly, and began building a full-scale vehicle. When a contractor failed to design an engine with sufficient power and weight specifications, Manly traveled to Europe to study engines and finished the final design himself. Built at a cost of nearly $70,000, the "Great Aerodrome" featured a 52-hp engine that delivered more power per weight than the one used by the Wright Brothers during their historic flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
 For nearly 10 years, Samuel Langley had staged flight tests from atop a houseboat moored neared Quantico, Virginia on the Potomac River. Although his first five models had failed, Aerodrome Number 6 had flown over 4000 ft. at 30 mph before crashing into the water. When Langley brought his masterpiece, the "Great Aerodrome", abroad his houseboat on July 14, 1903, he planned to make history. Soon after the craft was assembled, Langley scheduled a launch for the morning of October 7, 1903. As boats with spectators from the War Department and the Smithsonian crowded the Potomac, Charles M. Manley hopped aboard Langley's airplane. The 52-hp engine sputtered, started, and purred. The retaining cable to the aviation catapult system was cut, helping the "Great Aerodrome" accelerate for a takeoff that never happened. As Langley watched in horror, the ill-fated plane shot from the catapult and plunged directly into the Potomac River. Manly swam to safety, but Langley soon faced a torrent of criticism. After a second launch failed on December 8, 1903, the national press deluged Langley with ridicule. Nine days later, the Wright Brothers celebrated their first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air human flight.
 Heartbroken, Samuel Pierpont Langley died in Aiken, South Carolina, on February 27, 1906 at the age of 71. "It was Samuel Langley's fate," one biographer has written, "to experience the most spectacular and publicized failure to fly in all aviation history." In death, however, Langley's reputation was revived. In 1922, the U.S. Navy commissioned its first aircraft carrier – one which used a successful aviation catapult system - as the U.S.S. Langley. Langley Air Force Base, the Langley unit of solar radiation, and NASA's Langley Research Center also bear the name of this aviation pioneer.
Resources:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/cv-1.htm
http://www.sil.si.edu/ondisplay/langley/intro.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Pierpont_Langley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers
| 
