The Wrights Discovered What? Was the Wrights' "Original" Research Original?
Smeaton's Coefficient : The Little Number with a Big Difference “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants -- Isaac Newton "There is not a discovery in science, however revolutionary, however sparkling with insight, that does not arise out of what went before."--Isaac Asimov In 1896, with Alexander Graham Bell looking on, Samuel Pierpont Langley's steam powered , model "aerodrome" successfully flew 3/4 of a mile. Launched again, it flew once more, nearly as far as the first time. Quantico, Virginia, 1896. The successful flight of Professor Samuel Langley's unmanned model-- six years before the Wrights' claimed manned flight of 1903 " I was myself a witness of the memorable experiments made by Professor Langley on the 6th of May, 1896, with his large-sized model which had a spread of wing of about 14 feet. No one who witnessed the extraordinary spectacle of a steam-engine flying with wings in the air , like a gr