 he year 1896 was a flurry of aeronautical activity. The newspapers were filled
with accounts of experiments with balloons, dirigibles, gliders, ornithopters
(machines
with flapping wings), and airplanes. Most of these were derisive stories about laughable
failures, but no one was laughing on May 6 when Dr. Samuel Pierpont Langley, Secretary of
the Smithsonian Institution, flew his steam-powered Aerodrome No. 5 half a mile
over the waters of the Potomac River. It was a small craft with a wingspan of
14 feet, too
small to carry a person. But its success gave critics pause and captured the imagination
of the American public.Their attention was focused on Germany on August 9 when Otto Lilienthal, by far the most accomplished glider pilot to date, was caught by a gust of wind that turned the nose of his craft up. He could not bring it back down quickly enough to keep from losing airspeed, his craft stalled 50 feet above the ground, and the pilot plunged to his death. Lilienthal was an engineer and machinist who had made over 2000 flights in 16 different gliders of his own design, and his death was a great blow to those who believed mechanical flight was possible. But their hopes were revived again on August 29 when Octave Chanute, an accomplished engineer with a an international reputation and a fascination for flight, gathered a band of aeronautical enthusiasts and began testing glider designs at the Indiana Dunes near Miller, Indiana. Their most successful design was a biplane glider that flew over 350 feet, besting anything Lilienthal had built. |
Click on a photo to
enlarge it. Langley's steam-powered aerodrome No. 5 in flight.
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