Inventor and aeronautical pioneer, born in Roxbury (now part of Boston), Massachusetts, USA. Although he had no formal higher education, he served for 20 years as director of the Allegheny Observatory (186787). While director, he created a system of regulating railroad time that became standard. In 1878 he invented a bolometer, an electrical thermometer, which he used to conduct experiments on solar and lunar radiation. During 18871906 he served as secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He built several models of heavier-than-air mechanically propelled flying machines, and in 1896 he achieved the first free flights. His subsequent attempt to build and fly a man-carrying machine failed.
Samuel Pierpont Langley (August 22, 1834, Roxbury, Massachusetts (near Boston) – February 27, 1906, Aiken, South Carolina) was an American astronomer, physicist, inventor of the bolometer and pioneer of aviation. Langley was the founder of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
In 1886, Langley received the Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences for his contributions to solar physics.
Aviation work
Langley attempted to make the first working piloted heavier-than-air aircraft. His models flew but his two attempts at piloted flight, though less ambitious than the Wright brothers' flights, were not successful.
Langley began experimenting with rubber powered models and gliders. (According to one book, he was not able to reproduce Alphonse Pénaud's time aloft with rubber power but persisted anyway.) He built a rotating arm (with function similar to the Wright brothers' wind tunnel) for testing.
While the full-scale vehicle was being designed and built, the internal combustion engine development was contracted out to an engine manufacturer. This engine had far more power per weight than did the Wright brothers' engine that powered the first airplane. The engine, though mostly not the direct technical work of Langley, was probably the project's main contribution to aviation.
His piloted machine had wire-braced tandem wings (one behind the other). In contrast to the Wright brothers' approach of designing a light and agile airplane that could be flown against a strong wind, Langley avoided fatal accidents by practicing over water, the Potomac River.
Langley's aircraft was modified and flown by Glenn Curtiss, in 1914, as part of his attempt to fight the Wright brothers' patent, but the court upheld the patent.
Langley appears to have had no effective way of addressing the Wright Brothers' central innovation of controlling an airplane too big to be maneuvered by the weight of the pilot's body. So if the "Airdrome" had taken off and flown stably, as the models did, Manly would have been in considerable danger and the Wright Brothers' credit would be little reduced. To his credit, Langley had to write reports and proposals during this project, while the Wright brothers were spending their own money.
A number of things related to aviation have been named in Langley's honor, including:
Langley medal NASA Langley X-43A Hyper-X NASA Langley Research Center (NASA LaRC), Hampton, Virginia Langley Air Force Base Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory Langley unit of solar radiation USS Langley (CV-1) USS Langley (CVL-27)In World War II the United States liberty ship SS Samuel P.
User Comments Add a comment…