Efforts at Powered Flight During the Last Decade Before the Wright Brothers

In addition to the achievements of Otto Lilienthal and Octave Chanute, the achievements of two other major figures and several more minor individuals stand out in the final decade before the 1903 powered flight of the Wright brothers.

The French experimenter Clement Ader investigated bird and bat flight and began to construct glider models in 1872. His first full-size aircraft, a monoplane called the Eole after the Greek god of the wind, had a bat-like structure. An efficient alcohol-fired 10-to-12-horsepower (7.5-to-9- kilowatt) steam engine, which was considerably lighter than the 12-to-16-horsepower (9-to-12- kilowatt) engine on the Wright Flyer, was mounted on the fuselage. The engine drove a large 8.5- foot (2.6 meter) tractor propeller. With Ader's weight, the Eole weighed about 727 pounds (330 kilograms) and had heavily cambered wings spanning more than 39.4 feet (12 meters).

Ader tested the Eole on October 9, 1890, over a 656.2-foot (200 meter) prepared surface at the Chateau d'Armainvilliers in Brie, southwest of Paris. Witnesses saw it ôhopö about 165 feet (50 meters) as it rose a few inches off the ground, becoming the first manned, steam-powered craft to rise from level ground. However, the flight could not be sustained and did not achieve control. Ader also lacked the piloting skills to deal with the wind gusts and crosswinds that blew him off the track. Even so, he was encouraged by his ôsuccessö and continued experimenting using similarly configured machines.

Clement Ader's Avion III, 1897. The design is patterned after a bat.

In 1892, the French War Ministry commissioned Ader to build a new plane. Ader took five years to build the Avion III. The aircraft had the same general design as the Eole and weighed even more. It was powered by two 30-horsepower (22.4-kilowatt) steam engines, instead of one that drove two counter-rotating 9.9-foot (3 meter) diameter tractor propellers. Again, there was no adequate provision for controlling the machine if it left the ground.

The Avion III was tested on October 12 and 14, 1897, at the Sartory military base near Versailles, France. On the first day, the machine simply rolled along its circular track. Two days later, it rolled for a short distance, shot off the track, and ended up in a field. The Avion III never got its wheels off the ground, and the experiments were abandoned.

Ader claimed that he was truly the first to fly and had flown up to 984 feet (300 meters) in 1897. In spite of a lack of evidence, Ader's assertion persisted until the French War Ministry published the official report of the unsuccessful Avion III tests that General Mensier had written on October 14, 1897.

Samuel Pierpont Langley

The second individual to make an impact during this decade was Samuel Pierpont Langley. Although his attempts at powered flight were unsuccessful, he highlighted some of the issues relating to flight and the necessity of using a sound research methodology.á

Born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, Langley held the chair in astronomy at the Western University of Pennsylvania (later the University of Pittsburgh) from 1867 to 1886. While at the university, he carried out aerodynamic research using a huge 60-foot (16.3-meter)-diameter whirling arm that could approach speeds of 70 miles per hour (113 kilometers per hour). He described these experiments and summarized his results in Experiments in Aerodynamics, which was published in 1891.

He also studied sunspots at the Allegheny Observatory, invented the bolometer (a radiometer that measured the distribution of heat in the solar spectrum) and developed a method to determine the solar constant of radiation. He was appointed assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., in 1887, and its third secretary in 1891, where he established the Astrophysical Observatory.

Langley began constructing a series of small flying models to test his theories in 1886. In 1887, he began building models that were propelled with twisted rubber bands. In 1891, he started to experiment with large, tandem-winged models powered by small steam and gasoline engines. He experimented with many combinations of wings, fuselages, propellers, and tail assemblies using a large whirling arm that was set up at the Smithsonian.á

The frame of Langley's Aerodrome A in his workshop, January 31, 1900.

Langley was convinced that a practical aircraft should be inherently stable, and, therefore, he neglected the matter of flight control. He also thought that the same degree of stability that could be built into unmanned models would exist in full‑size, piloted aircraft. Basically, he thought, the aircraft should be capable of flying itself, leaving the pilot merely to point it in the desired direction.

After building dozens of rubber-band-powered models, in 1892, he built the first of his larger "aerodromes" with tandem 14-foot (14.3-meter)-wide wings, powered by a lightweight steam engine. His first tests were unsuccessful because the aerodromes were too fragile and underpowered to sustain themselves. His first success occurred on May 6, 1896, with the launch of Aerodrome Number Fiveá by catapult from a houseboat on the Potomac River near Quantico, Virginia. It flew almost a half mile (0.8 kilometer) in 1.5 minutes.á

Samuel Langley's Aerodrome A.

Path of Langley's experimental aerodrome flights on May 6 and November 28, 1896, near Quantico, Virginia, on the Potomac River.From Langley's memoir on mechanical flight. Part I: 1887-1896.

The flight of Aerodrome Number Six followed six months later on November 28, 1896. This aerodrome was powered by a one-horsepower (0.75-kilowatt) steam engine. The wings were set at a distinct dihedral angle (tilted upward) so that the craft was dynamically stable and could right itself if disturbed by a sideways breeze. It had no method of steering, and the design did not easily allow for adding a way to control the direction of the craft later. The 4,200-foot (1,280-meter) flight, which was witnessed by government officials and notables such as telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell, inspired a great deal of official interest. These two flights marked the first time that full-scale, heavier-than-air, powered models flew rather than hopped.

In 1898, based on the success of Langley's Number 6 flight, the U.S. Government asked him to build a full-size, man-carrying Aerodrome, and the War Department gave him a $50,000 grant for that purpose.

Before attempting a full-scale version, Langley built a quarter-size model that flew successfully in 1901.
It was the first time a gasoline engine had driven an airplane.

Langley first built a quarter-size model in 1901, powered by a miniature gasoline engine.á Successful unmanned flight trials were carried out, and he proceeded to a full-size airplane, which was completed in 1903. It was a large machine, weighing 341.6 pounds (155 kilograms) including the pilot, and had a wingspan of 48 feet (14.6 meters). It had tail surfaces and a rudder, but the craft had not incorporated sufficient structural changes to provide the control or strength needed for the greater size. Also, Langley had not carried out necessary experimentation with actual gliding to learn the problems of sailing in the air firsthand nor had he tested each aspect of flight before moving on to the next step.

Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834-1906) and Charles M. Manly (left), chief mechanic and pilot on board the houseboat that served to
launch Langley's Aerodrome aircraft over the Potomac River near Washington, D.C. in 1903.

The engineer Charles Manly developed a 52-horsepower (38.8-kilowatt) radial-cylinder internal combustion gasoline engine for the craft that drove two pusher propellers. The engine, the first of its kind, improved upon the air-cooled rotary radial engine designed and built by Stephen Balzer, which had been successfully test flown in 1901.

Langley felt it would be safest to fly over water and spent almost half of his funds on a houseboat with a catapult that could launch his new craft. áThe October 7, 1903, launch catapulted the Aerodrome, piloted by Manly, over the Potomac River from the houseboat.á The plane had to go from a dead stop to its 60 miles per hour (96 kilometers per hour) flying speed in only 70 feet (21.3 meters). The stress of the catapult launch was much too great for the flimsy wood-and-fabric of the aircraft. The front wing collapsed and dumped Manly into the Potomac River. No lift at all had been achieved.á

Catapulting of the Langley aerodrome from a specially constructed houseboat on the Potomac River near Quantico, Virginia, in 1903.

Langley's Aerodrome. Both attempts to fly the aircraft from the roof of this houseboat ended in failure as it lunged into the Potomac River.

The first launch of Langley's aerodrome took place on October 7, 1903. The aircraft ended up in the Potomac River.

Langley and his Smithsonian-War-Department crew rebuilt the Aerodrome. The second attempt took place on December 8, 1903. This time, the rear wing and tail completely collapsed during launch, and Manly was nearly killed as the disintegrating craft fell into the Potomac River. The press and the U.S. Congress attacked Langley for wasting its investment. The discouraged Langley issued an official statement ending the Aerodrome project.

The second attempt to fly Langley's Aerodrome on December 8, 1903, also ended up in failure.
After this attempt, Langley gave up his attempts to fly a heavier-than-air aircraft

--Judy Rumerman

References:

Crouch, Tom P. Dream of Wings:á Americans and the Airplane, 1875-1905. New York: W.W. Norton, 1981; reprint ed., Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988.

Gibbs-Smith, Charles H. The Invention of the Aeroplane, 1799-1909. New York: Taplinger, 1965.

Moolman, Valerie and the editors of Time-Life Books. The Road to Kitty Hawk. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life, 1980.

Scott, Phil. The Shoulders of Giants: A History of Human Flight to 1919. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1995.

Vaeth, J. Gordon. Langley, Man of Science and Flight. New York, Ronald Press Co., 1966.

On-Line References

ôA History of the Airplane.ö Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company and Museum of Pioneer Aviation. http://www.first-to-fly.com/History/history.htm.

ôLangley Aerodrome A.ö Aircraft of the Smithsonian. http://www.nasm.edu/nasm/aero/aircraft/langleyA.htm

ôLangley Aerodrome No. 5.ö Aircraft of the Smithsonian. http://www.nasm.edu/nasm/aero/aircraft/langley5.htm