The Connecticut legislature this week voted to change the historical record on the Wright brothers. They disenfranchised the Wright brothers in order to placate German authorities who are now making a claim to the invention of flight in order to garner funding for a huge new museum of flight. Without that mandate, the Germans would not fund the museum. Gustav Whitehead, the purported man that flew first was also a Connecticut resident and they stand to gain from the vote.
By dong this, the Connecticut government acted in the same way it did back in the Wright brothers day; they acted with malice toward anything not directed by government. More importantly, it promotes a liberal agenda and protects the legacy of a famous (or perhaps infamous) US government employee, despite being discredited by most authorities on the subject. Jane’s Aviation is the only creditable source agreeing with the Connecticut ruling. It should be noted that in 2007, Jane’s was purchased by a liberal multinational conglomerate and is not the original Jane’s developed by magnate Frank T Jane.
Let’s spin back the clock.
Ever hear of a man named Samuel Langley? Probably not, although a few might. Sam Langley was the Secretary of the Smithsonian in 1887 (only the third at that point) and founder of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Laboratory. A lifelong government scientist he received numerous awards and accolades, has had ships and even a mountain named after him (Mt. Langley is about 4 miles north of California’s famous Mt. Whitney). You would think for all these accolades he would have done something notable that people would remember. Government considers him a pioneer of aviation and a genius.
What did he do?
Well he spent almost 100k of taxpayer dollars trying to invent the airplane. And failed miserably. Let me explain- and why I’m bringing it up today,
Ol’ Sam was considered an expert in the early field of aviation back then and was commissioned to build the world’s first airplane through the fledgling Smithsonian Institute. He was granted a commission of 50,000 taxpayer dollars – a sizable sum in 1887. After several years of government style hard work and 50k later, he managed to come up with a few rubber band powered models that really didn’t work all that well, despite the fact that French scientist Pernaud being able to make them successfully. Langley went back to the government for additional 20k of taxpayer money and managed to build a small steam powered- yes steam- model and get it to fly. The white elephant of aviation still is in the Smithsonian as a monument to his genius.
Or waste, depending on your point of view.
Anyway, a couple a bicycle maker shopkeepers in Kitty Hawk North Carolina decided to give it a go in 1900. Spending only a few hundred bucks of their own money, by December of 1903 they had developed a viable working airplane and proceeded to patent the design after several flights on December 13, 1903.
Langley, of course, in typical government style was outraged. How dare they tread on government scientific investigations! Langley churned up the media at the time and caused the Wrights all kind of problems as they pushed their patents through. The esteemed Scientific American magazine went so far as to call the Wrights airplane and patents a “hoax”, and that only that savior of American genius, Sam Langley, will be able to solve the problem of human flight. In fact, the Paris edition of the New York Herald summed up Europe’s opinion, as well, of the Wright brothers in an editorial on February 10, 1906- in typical look down your nose I’m better than you fashion:
The Wrights have flown or they have not flown. They possess a machine or they do not possess one. They are in fact either fliers or liars. It is difficult to fly. It’s easy to say, ‘We have flown’
Langley’s own behemoth, the “Aerodrome” ( an unmanned steam powered government airplane) was pushed into testing in production in an attempt to thwart the Wrights. It promptly crashed into the Potomac most miserably. Newspaper accounts at the time reported it “crashing like a box of mortar” into the river.
By 1908, the US gave up on Langley, and settled on a contract with the Wrights. Five years of more design innovations- funded by their own hard work in the bicycle shop- proved fruitful. Onlookers were amazed at how well the Wright fliers could fly. The 1908 version of the fliers could easily take off and land, carry a passenger, and maneuver effortlessly. Nevertheless,the government for years stalled, delayed and thwarted the Wrights in their quest to patent their fliers.
But in the end, the Wrights became more famous than peanut butter and jelly. And Sam Langley, although beloved by the US government bureaucrats, fell into the realm of public forgetfulness. The rancor the government had for the Wrights can’t be underestimated, over the whole Langley affair. In fact, the Wright brothers were convinced that government some day would try and discredit their first flight and made the Smithsonian sign extensive agreements as to the display of the Wright brothers’ Flyer. To this day, the Wright fliers hanging in the Smithsonian have a mandated disclaimer on them- that the Smithsonian and government, had absolutely nothing to do with Wright’s brothers’ airplanes or discoveries.
And the reason I bring this up today? Other than the fact that its more proof- as if we needed any- that government couldn’t discover a hole in a block of Swiss cheese?
Sam Langley also has one other contribution to society besides the “Aerodrome” that now hangs in the University of Pittsburgh science building.
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- yup that wonder of modern science that government is selling to us today:
The greenhouse effect.
UPDATE: I received an email from John Brown, Historian in which he claims ownership of a photo publicly posted on the internet. Despite proper attribution and backlinking allowed under the internet fair use act and 100 other websites using it, I have acceded to his demand. In fairness this is the unedited email he sent me. Despite the snide tone, I have decided to post it here and let the readers decide for themselves, since the article was about the failures of government interference in the private market and its promotion of flight, not who invented flight first.
Dear Mr. Purcell,
