Smithsonian kinda, sorta admits to a lie

From: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,105513,00.html

The Smithsonian Institution (search) is celebrating the 100th anniversary of
the Wright Brothers' first flight with a Web presentation and the grand
opening of a new branch of the National Air and Space Museum.
The tribute is ironic as the Smithsonian spent 28 years denying the Wrights
credit for the first flight in favor of promoting the dubious legacy of one
of its own.

The dark saga is extensively documented in Fred Howard's book, "Wilbur and
Orville: A Biography of the Wright Brothers" (Dover, 1987) - but it isn't
even alluded to in the Smithsonian's "tribute."

Samuel Langley, the former head of the Smithsonian Institution, had
researched flight for 12 years before the Wrights began their work in 1899.

Underwritten by a $50,000 War Department contract, Langley tested an
airplane on Oct. 7, 1903. Resembling a giant dragonfly, the "Aerodrome"
(search) was 54 feet long and had two 48-foot wings.

When launched from a houseboat on the Potomac River, the Aerodrome "simply
slid into the water like a handful of mortar," reported observers. The
effort was so dismal the New York Times editorialized that one million to 10
million years would be needed to develop an airplane.

After another failure on Dec. 8, Langley blamed faulty launch equipment -
not his design. The discouraged War Department ended the project.

Nine days later, the Wrights flew their airplane 100 feet in 12 seconds -
seemingly, straight into the history books.

By 1908, the Wrights owned a general airplane patent in the United States
and Europe and aggressively enforced their rights with lawsuits. Their
principal U.S. foe was aircraft manufacturer Glenn Curtiss, who repeatedly
lost court battles with the Wrights between 1910 and 1914.

In early 1914, Curtiss met with Albert Zahm, one of his former expert
witnesses, who had just become the head of the Smithsonian's Langley
Aerodynamical Laboratory - the Aerodrome's custodian.

Zahm suggested rebuilding and retesting the Aerodrome to see if Langley's
design was capable of flight had it not been thwarted by the supposedly
faulty launching equipment. If it could be shown that the Aerodrome was
capable of flight first, then a court might limit the Wright patent.

Smithsonian chief Charles Walcott, a friend of Langley's and a supporter of
his Aerodrome project, agreed to this "restoration" scheme, cloaking his
approval in historical and aeronautical safety rationale. Walcott then
commissioned Curtiss - hardly a disinterested party - to rebuild and test
the Aerodrome!

Curtiss went far beyond restoring the Aerodrome's original design. Engine
parts were changed. The propellers and wings were enhanced. Pontoons were
added to replace Langley's houseboat-launch set-up.

Curtiss' reconstructed Aerodrome wasn't Langley's original Aerodrome, at
all.

At a May 1914 test flight, the Smithsonian's Zahm reported that the
"restored" Aerodrome "rose in level poise, soared gracefully for 150 feet
and landed softly on the water."

The New York Times, however, reported the news differently - "observers who
watched the proceedings from the shore failed to see that the machine rose
at all from the water."

Two photos were taken of the Aerodrome with its pontoons just above the
water's surface at a subsequent test in June 1914. No time or distance
estimates were recorded for the "flight."

Curtiss then lured Orville - Wilbur had died in 1912 - into filing another
infringement suit in November 1914.

As evidence of the Aerodrome's capacity for flight, Curtiss used the
Smithsonian's annual report for 1914 in which Zahm described the Aerodrome
as the "first man-carrying aeroplane capable of sustained free flight." The
report included the photos of the Aerodrome aloft, maintaining the machine
was unmodified.

But the Curtiss-Smithsonian scheme didn't impress the court, which upheld
the Wright patent. Curtiss' defeat, however, didn't end the Smithsonian's
effort to deny the Wrights' claim to fame.

In 1918, the Smithsonian restored the Aerodrome to its original 1903
condition and displayed it in the museum with the label, "The first
man-carrying aeroplane in the history of the world capable of sustained free
flight. Invented, built, and tested over the Potomac River by Samuel
Pierpont Langley in 1903. Successfully flown at Hammondsport, N.Y., June 2,
1914."

"It was a lie pure and simple, but it bore the imprimatur of the venerable
Smithsonian and over the years would find its way into magazines, history
books, and encyclopedias, much to the annoyance of those familiar with the
facts," wrote Fred Howard in "Wilbur and Orville."

The lie lasted 25 years.

Angered at the Smithsonian, Orville sent the 1903 Flyer to the Science
Museum in London in 1928.

In 1942, a new Smithsonian regime finally retracted its Aerodrome claims and
privately acknowledged wronging the Wrights. The 1903 Flyer was finally
repatriated and installed in the Smithsonian in December 1948 - 11 months
after Orville's death.

All isn't forgiven, though the Smithsonian apparently wants the controversy
forgotten.

The Smithsonian's centennial Web presentation doesn't mention scheming with
Curtiss or denying the Wright Brothers' preeminence in flight.

Seeming to maintain some institutional grudge, the Smithsonian portrays
Curtiss as an innocent "target" of the Wrights' "litigiousness."

If only the Aerodrome's propellers had that kind of spin.

The Smithsonian describes itself as a "vital center for research into the
history, science, and technology of aviation." Sadly, instead of presenting
the unvarnished history of flight, the museum seems as committed as ever to
its historical flight from the truth.


--
Jim Fisher