nPostednon August 22, 2014
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nYounmay have heard about Wilbur and Orville Wright as the guys whoninvented powered flight (in other words, airplanes). But surely younknow that lots of other people were fiddling around with their ownndesigns and inventions for powered flight at the same time. n
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Today’snfamous birthday, Samuel Pierpont Langley, born on this date in 1834,nseemed likely to succeed over the others—even over the Wrightnbrothers. Langley was an American astronomer and physicist, and hisnunmanned tandem-wing plane flew 4,200 feet in late 1896. It was suchna promising start that the U.S. War Department gave him $50,000 tondevelop a piloted airplane. The Smithsonian pitched in an additionaln$20,000.
Today’snfamous birthday, Samuel Pierpont Langley, born on this date in 1834,nseemed likely to succeed over the others—even over the Wrightnbrothers. Langley was an American astronomer and physicist, and hisnunmanned tandem-wing plane flew 4,200 feet in late 1896. It was suchna promising start that the U.S. War Department gave him $50,000 tondevelop a piloted airplane. The Smithsonian pitched in an additionaln$20,000.n
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Langleyndecided that it would be safest to fly over water, so he spent almostnhalf of the start-up money building a houseboat and a catapult on thenhouseboat.
Langleyndecided that it would be safest to fly over water, so he spent almostnhalf of the start-up money building a houseboat and a catapult on thenhouseboat.n
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nAncat-a-what?
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nAncatapult is a contraption that is designed to hurl an object into thenair. Langley’s aircraft needed to go from a dead stop to 60nmiles-per-hour, the speed necessary for flight, in just 70 feet.nSince that would be impossible to do with the engines then available,nLangley decided that a catapult would be needed to achieve the speed.
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nYounprobably know that most modern airplanes use long runways so thatnthey can slowly achieve the speed needed for flight. Most runways arenat least 6,000 feet long.
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nBut Langley’s idea wasn’t completelyncuckoo; modern aircraft carriers sit on the ocean and use fourncatapults to launch airplanes into the air. And floating platformsnfor launching planes were used within ten years of the invention ofnthe airplane.
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| Langley’s tandem-wing aircraft had one wing forward and one wing behind, rather than two wings stacked. |
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nStill, Langley did not succeed with his idea. His airplane, which he callednan aerodrome, had a more powerful motor than that used by the Wrightnbrothers, but both of his test flights ended in disaster.
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nThe firstnflight, on October 7, 1903, ended when the wing of the plane clippednthe catapult and the aerodrome plunged into the river…A reporternwrote that the plane flew “like a handful of mortar.”n
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nThe second flight, on December 8, 1903, ended when the rear wing andntail broke apart as it left the catapult. This time, the engineer /ntest pilot almost drowned in the Potomac River…but was (thankfully)nrescued.
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nSomenreporters and readers poked fun at the aerodromes’ failures. A workernfrom the War Department concluded that Langley was still far from thengoal of powered, controlled flight—and that it would take a team ofnexperts and many more thousands of dollars to reach the goal.
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| Notice that the Wright brothers built an airplane with “stacked wings.” This is called a biplane. |
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nButnthen, just a few days later, on December 17, 1903, the WrightnBrothers achieved the goal with an airplane that cost just $1,000 tonbuild! n
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nAlsonon this date:
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Hopi Snake Dancen
Hopi Snake Dancen
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nBenan Angel Day
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nAnniversarynof the demonstration of the steamboat
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nRussiannFlag Day
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest boards for:
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nAugustn holidays
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nAugustn birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in August
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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nSeptembern holidays
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nSeptembern birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in September
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