May
08

May 6, 1896

May 6, 1896 Smithsonian Secretary Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834-1906) launches his “aerodrome,” an early attempt at a flying machine, along the Potomac River.  Catapulted from a houseboat, the aerodrome quickly crashes into the river.  Langley was never successful in his attempts to invent the first airplan

The image is an instantaneous photograph by Alexander Graham Bell of Langley Aerodrome No. 5 in flight May 6, 1896.

Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives

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Posted: 8 May 2012
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