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The Aerodrome

The Aerodrome.jpg Octave Chanute experimenting with his gliders on the Michigan sand dunesThumbnailsWright Brothers' Bicycle shopOctave Chanute experimenting with his gliders on the Michigan sand dunesThumbnailsWright Brothers' Bicycle shopOctave Chanute experimenting with his gliders on the Michigan sand dunesThumbnailsWright Brothers' Bicycle shopOctave Chanute experimenting with his gliders on the Michigan sand dunesThumbnailsWright Brothers' Bicycle shopOctave Chanute experimenting with his gliders on the Michigan sand dunesThumbnailsWright Brothers' Bicycle shop
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Langley built his plane without much difficulty, but could not find anyone to make an engine large enough for it. Finally, Charles Manley, an expert engineer, asked for permission to build the engine. Manley’s engine was a five-cylinder, radial gasoline engine that developed 51 horsepower and was far ahead of its time. It was years before American radial engines were used successfully in airplanes.

Professor Langley called his machine the Aerodrome, and by October, 1903, the plane was ready for its test flight, with Manley to guide it. The Aerodrome was to be launched from a catapulting platform built on the roof of a houseboat. The houseboat was anchored on the Potomac River near Washington. As it left the platform the machine crashed into the river, and the trial was a dismal failure. The newspapers and the public ridiculed Langley, but he and Manley, who was unhurt in the crash, repaired the machine for another trial. This test took place on December 8, 1903, and again the Aerodrome crashed into the river. Manley once more escaped injury, but Langley and the government were abused by the public for wasting money. Langley was out of money himself, the government could not furnish funds for further trials, so the experiments were ended. The professor, discouraged and brokenhearted, gave up.

Author
The Story of American Aviation
By James G. Ray
Published in 1946
Available from gutenberg.org
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1000*337
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