Early Flight
Many people have flown in an airplane or are going to at some point in their lifetime, but most people do not know how the airplane came about or about aviation history at all. Samuel P. Langley played a very big part in the history of aviation. Although Langley was not always into aviation, he gained interest in it in the latter part of his life. Before aviation, Langley was a distinguished mathematician and astronomer who later became the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Langley was the first major aviation figure in the U.S. Langley did not always have great success in the aviation field. He was mocked and ridiculed for his many unsuccessful attempts of flight powered by ...
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U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. In 1867, when Langley was 33 years of age, he took the position of a director at the Allegheny Observatory. He then became a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh. His main interest was solar activity and the effect that it had on the weather. In 1878, Langley invented the Bolometer, which is a radiant-head detector that is sensitive to the differences in temperature to onehundred-thousandth of a degree. This invention allowed Langley to study the star spectrum into its infrared region and it also allowed him to study the effects of solar radiation at the different wavelengths. While still at Allegheny, Langley experimented with the lift and drag of an airplane traveling at certain speeds. After these experiments, Langley was the first person that could provide a reason why birds can fly without noticeable movement from the wings.
In the 1880’s, Langley became the third Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. ...
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Langley was using a catapult-launching device, which was placed on the top of a houseboat, near Quantico, on the Potomac River. The stability became a problem also in the flight with the wing distortion. So far on any attempt, Langley had not secured any type of real flight.
In 1895, Langley started to rebuild his number five aerodrome, which came out as a tandem winged monoplane. Langley had great confidence that this model would fly. Also, at the same time, he was reconstructing the number four plane, which he renamed to number six. On May 6, 1896, the number five aerodrome was completely repaired, modified, and ready for flight. This was the first successful flight that ...
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"Early Flight." Essayworld.com. October 30, 2004. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Early-Flight/16731.
"Early Flight." Essayworld.com. October 30, 2004. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Early-Flight/16731.
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