Heavier-than-air Flight Research
Langley also researched heavier-than-air flight behind the observatory. To study the aerodynamic behavior of different forms traveling at high speeds he built a large spring "whirling arm" to which stuffed birds and wings he made were attached. After leaving Allegheny Observatory to become secretary of the Smithsonian in 1888, he continued his flight research, designing and flying the first, unmanned, aircraft capable of stable continuously powered flight from a houseboat on the Potomac River. His full-size manned Aerodrome was funded by the U.S. Army. Two well-publicized crashes of the Aerodrome in 1903 ended his flight research.
Read more about this topic: Allegheny Observatory
Famous quotes containing the words flight and/or research:
“it pleaseth me when I see through the meadows
The tents and pavilions set up, and great joy have I
When I see o’er the campana knights armed and horses arrayed.
And it pleaseth me when the scouts set in flight the folk with
their goods;
And it pleaseth me when I see coming together after them an host of
armed men.”
—Bertrans De Born (fl. 12th century)
“After all, the ultimate goal of all research is not objectivity, but truth.”
—Helene Deutsch (1884–1982)