Following Leonardo’s ideas, some inventors designed flight mechanism with wings or winged cogs which carried out the same function as a sail or paddle. The first to resemble planes of today was designed by British Baron sir George Cayley, who did a systematic study of birds and other flying creatures at the beginning of the 1800’s. He built a vehiclee that had stable wings, body and tail, as well as independent systems that would enable take-off, propulsion and control.
Some of the researchers believed that the conquest of the skies would be solely as a result of model airplanes whilst others believed that it would be gliders. The most famous of those experimenting with model airplanes was American doctor Samuel Pierpoint Langley. On may 6thi 1896, Langley decided to experiment. He took his model plane to a catapult he built on a houseboat on the Potamac River near Washington and managed to get it airbone. Six month later, a larger model flew almost a mile.
The American Army was very impressed by these flights and gave Langley 50 thousand dollars to continue devoloping his planes. The Smithsonian Institute added another 20 thousand dollars. These were large amounts of money in those days. In the meantime, back in Washington Dr. Langley was busy building a full sized plane based on his models which would fly with petrol. This plane which he named the Great Aerodrome was to be flown from tthe roof of the houseboat he had built in the Potamac River. The Aerodrome dived headfirst into the water on the two occasions itwas tested on October 7th and December 8th 1903. The army refused to contribute any more money to Langley’s projects. Precisely 9 days after Langley’s failed attempt to fly the Great Aerodrome over the Potamac River, Wilbur and Orville Wright successfully flew for the first time.
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