Samuel Pierpont Langley.

Langley's 1/4-scale model, 1896.

Aviation experiment on the Potomac River, 1903.

Samuel Pierpont Langley (August 22, 1834 in Roxbury, Massachusetts near Boston, – February 27, 1906, Aiken, South Carolina) was an American astronomer, physicist, inventor of the bolometer and pioneer of aviation. He graduated from Boston Latin School, was an assistant in the Harvard observatory, then became chair of mathematics at the United States Naval Academy. In 1867, he became a professor of astronomy at the Western University of Pennsylvania at Pittsburgh, and became the third Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1887. Langley was the founder of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (550x720, 67 KB) Summary Samuel Pierpont Langley, pioneer aviator and 3rd Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (550x720, 67 KB) Summary Samuel Pierpont Langley, pioneer aviator and 3rd Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1000x643, 203 KB) Summary Samuel Pierpont Langley - Quarterscale model, 1896. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1000x643, 203 KB) Summary Samuel Pierpont Langley - Quarterscale model, 1896. ... Image File history File links Samuel_Pierpont_Langley_-_Potomac_experiment_1903. ... Image File history File links Samuel_Pierpont_Langley_-_Potomac_experiment_1903. ... The Potomac River at Great Falls, MD from Olmsted Island, water relatively low The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States (USA). ... August 22 is the 234th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (235th in leap years), with 131 days remaining. ... 1834 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Roxbury is a neighborhood within Boston, Massachusetts. ... Boston is a town and small port c. ... February 27 is the 58th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Aiken is a city located in Aiken County, South Carolina and is part of the Augusta, Georgia metropolitan area. ... An astronomer or astrophysicist is a scientist whose area of research is astronomy or astrophysics. ... A physicist is a scientist trained in physics. ... An inventor is a person who creates new inventions, typically technical devices such as mechanical, electrical or software devices or methods. ... A bolometer is a device for measuring incident electromagnetic radiation. ... ... Motto Sumus Primi Founded April 23, 1635 Head Master Ms. ... Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a member of the Ivy League. ... The United States Naval Academy (USNA) is an institution for the undergraduate education of officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps and is located in Annapolis, Maryland. ... The Smithsonian Institution Building or Castle on the National Mall serves as the Institutions headquarters. ... The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) is a research institute of the Smithsonian Institution headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where it is joined with the Harvard College Observatory (HCO) to form the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). ...

In 1886, Langley received the Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences for his contributions to solar physics. His publication in 1890 of infrared observations at the Allegheny Observatory in Pittsburgh together with Frank Washington Very was used by Svante Arrhenius to make the first calculations on the greenhouse effect. 1886 is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) // Events January 18 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ... The Henry Draper Medal was established by the widow of Henry Draper, and is awarded by the US National Academy of Sciences for contributions to astrophysics. ... President Harding and the National Academy of Sciences at the White House, Washington, DC, April 1921 The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine. ... The Sun (occasionally referred to as Sol) is the star at the centre of our solar system. ... The Allegheny Observatory was founded on February 15, 1859 in the city of Allegheny, Pennsylvania. ... Frank Washington Very (1852 – November 23, 1927) was a U.S. astronomer. ... Svante August Arrhenius Svante August Arrhenius (February 19, 1859 – October 2, 1927) was a Swedish chemist and one of the founders of the science of physical chemistry. ... The greenhouse effect, first discovered by Joseph Fourier in 1824, is the process by which an atmosphere warms a planet. ...

Aviation work

Langley attempted to make the first working piloted heavier-than-air aircraft. His models flew but his two attempts at piloted flight, though less ambitious than the Wright brothers' flights, were not successful. An aircraft is any machine capable of atmospheric flight. ... The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 - January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 - May 30, 1912), are generally credited with the design and construction of the first practical aeroplane, and making the first controllable, powered heavier-than-air flight along with many other aviation milestones. ...

Langley began experimenting with rubber powered models and gliders. (According to one book, he was not able to reproduce Alphonse Pénaud's time aloft with rubber power but persisted anyway.) He built a rotating arm (with function similar to the Wright brothers' wind tunnel) for testing. He obtained a War Department grant of $50,000 to develop a piloted airplane and proceeded to larger models with steam and gasoline power. These flew free for considerable distances, demonstrating stability and sufficient lift. They had elaborate wire braced structures. He hired a successful glider pilot to work with him, offered financial support to the Wright brothers (not accepted), and, most important hired Charles M. Manly as engineer and test pilot. While the full scale vehicle was being designed and built, the internal combustion engine development was contracted out to an engine manufacturer. When the contractor failed to produce an engine to the power and weight specifications, Manly finished the design. This engine had far more power per weight than did the Wright brothers' engine that powered the first airplane. The engine, though mostly not the direct technical work of Langley, was probably the project's main contribution to aviation. [1] His piloted machine had wire braced tandem wings (one behind the other). It had pitch and yaw control but no roll control, depending on stability, like the models, for maintaining its roll angle. In contrast to the Wright brothers' approach of designing a light and agile airplane that could be flown against a strong wind, Langley avoided fatal accidents by practicing over water, the Potomac River. This required a catapult for launching. The craft had no landing gear, the plan being to crash into the water, after demonstrating flight. They gave up the project after two crashes on take-off on October 7 and December 8, 1903. Manly was recovered unhurt from the river. Aircraft modeling or aeromodelling is a hobby that has been popular since the 1930s. ... Gliders are heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for un-powered flight. ... Alphonse Pénaud (1850–1880) was a major 19th century pioneer of aviation, inventor of the rubber powered model airplane and founder of the aviation industry. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The United States Department of War was the military department of the United States governments executive branch from 1789 until 1949, when it became part of the United States Department of Defense. ... A steam engine is a heat engine that makes use of the thermal energy that exists in steam, converting it to mechanical work. ... Gasoline engine (also referred to as petrol engine or Otto engine) invented at the end of the 19th century by German engineer Nikolaus Otto is a type of internal combustion engine which is often used for automobiles, aircraft, small mobile vehicles such as lawnmowers or motorcycles, and outboard motors for... In engineering and mathematics, control theory deals with the behavior of dynamical systems over time. ... Lift consists of the sum of all the fluid dynamic forces on a body perpendicular to the direction of the external flow around that body. ... Look up engineer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Test pilots work on developing, evaluating and proving experimental aircraft. ... A colorized automobile engine The internal combustion engine is a heat engine in which combustion occurs in a confined space called a combustion chamber. ... A Laughing Gull on the beach in Atlantic City. ... The Potomac River at Great Falls, MD from Olmsted Island, water relatively low The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States (USA). ... F/A-18 a split second after the red hold-back bar (on far left) has released and the catapult is hurling the aircract down the deck An aircraft catapult is a device used to launch aircraft from ships — in particular aircraft carriers — as a form of assisted take off. ... Main and nosewheel undercarriage of a Qatar Airways Airbus A330 The undercarriage or landing gear is equipment which supports an aircraft when it is not flying. ... 1903 (MCMIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

Manly with Langley

Langley's aircraft was modified and flown by Glenn Curtiss, in 1914, as part of his attempt to fight the Wright brothers' patent, but the court upheld the patent. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1298x1722, 178 KB)NASA web site: http://www. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1298x1722, 178 KB)NASA web site: http://www. ... Glenn H. Curtiss on the cover of Time magazine on October 13, 1924 Glenn H. Curtiss pilots license Glenn Hammond Curtiss (May 21, 1878 – July 23, 1930) was an aviation pioneer and founder of the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, now part of Curtiss-Wright Corporation. ... 1914 (MCMXIV) is a common year starting on Thursday. ...

Although, in 1897 and 1898, radio controlled boats had been demonstrated to the military and to the public by Nikola Tesla, the state of radio was very primitive. Though he did experiments with rotating structures and had the help of a successful hang glider pilot, he appears to have had no effective way of addressing the Wright Brothers' central problem of controlling an airplane, too big to be controlled by the weight of the pilot's body. So if the "Airdrome" had taken off and flown stably, as the models did, Manly would have been in considerable danger and the Wright Brothers' credit would be little reduced. To his credit, Langley had to write reports and proposals during this project, while the Wright brothers were spending their own money. This remote control airplane is carrying a scale model of X-33 and is taking part in actual NASA research. ... Nikola Tesla (July 10, 1856 – c. ... Hang gliding is one of the windsports. ...

A number of things related to aviation have been named in Langley's honor, including: ...

• Langley medal
• NASA Langley X-43A Hyper-X
• NASA Langley Research Center (NASA LaRC), Hampton, Virginia
• Langley field
• Langley Air Force Base
• Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory
• Langley unit of solar radiation
• USS Langley (CV-1)
• USS Langley (CVL-27)

NASA Logo Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-09-01, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... In aerodynamics, hypersonic speeds are speeds that are highly supersonic. ... Langley Research Center (LaRC) Oldest of NASAs field centers, LaRC is located in Hampton, Virginia, and focuses primarily on aeronautical research. ... On September 17, 1861, Mrs. ... Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia is home of Air Combat Command. ... The Langley (ly) is an international unit used to measure solar radiation (or insolation). ... Solar irradiance spectrum at top of atmosphere. ... The USS Langley (CV-1/AV-3) was the United States Navys first aircraft carrier. ... The USS Langley (CVL-27) was an 11,000-ton Independence-class aircraft carrier that served the United States Navy from 1943 - 1964. ...

At the Smithsonian

Langley served as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution from 1887-1906 . He was preceded by Spencer Fullerton Baird and succeeded by Charles Doolittle Walcott. Spencer Fullerton Baird Spencer Fullerton Baird (February 3, 1823 – August 19, 1887) was an American ornithologist and ichthyologist. ... Charles Doolittle Walcott (March 31, 1850 - February 9, 1927) was an eminent American invertebrate paleontologist. ...

References

• A Heritage of Wings, An Illustrated History of Naval Aviation, by Richard C. Knott, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1997
• Aviation, The Pioneer Years, edited by Ben Mackworth-Praed, Studio Editions, Ltd., London, 1990

External links

• http://www.flyingmachines.org/lang.html
• http://www.centennialofflight.gov/index2.cfm