Langley Aerodrome

The Langley Aerodrome A, also called the Great Aerodrome, was a piloted tandem-wing experimental aircraft built by Samuel P. Langley of the Smithsonian Institution and unsuccessfully tested in 1903. It was a scaled-up version of his unpiloted model Aerodromes, two of which made the first successful flights of engine-driven, heavier-than-air craft of substantial size in 1896. The airframe had a cruciform tail and two pusher propellers driven through shafts and gears, spanned 14.8 m, measured 16.0 m long and weighed 340 kg including the pilot. Its power came from a five-cylinder water-cooled radial gasoline engine, reworked by Charles Manly from a design by Stephen Balzer, which produced 52.4 horsepower at 950 rpm, a remarkable achievement for its time. The aircraft plunged into the Potomac on launch on 7 October 1903 and again on 8 December 1903, ending Langley's aeronautical work. Glenn Curtiss rebuilt and flew it in 1914, after which it was restored to its 1903 configuration, and it is now on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.