Charles M. Manly as portrayed by a student from the Immaculate Conception School of
Jamaica Estates, NY.
My name is Charles Manly and I was involved in one of the greatest adventures of mankind. I was a young engineer and would later become a test pilot for Dr. Samuel P. Langley and here is our story. Doc was a respected professor of mathematics and astronomy who was the director of the Smithsonian Institution. He was an accomplished thinker, scientist, and inventor and had the dream of creating a flying machine. In fact, in the mid- to late 1890s, he had done extensive experiments with large unmanned plane models and had achieved a high degree of success.
In 1898, Langley approached the U.S. War Department for funding to design and build an airplane to carry a man into the air. And the department gave him a commission of $50,000 -- a huge sum at that time.
By 1901, he had successfully tested an unmanned gasoline-powered heavier-than-air craft: It was the first in history. And then he enlisted my help, as an engineer he wanted me to build a powerful new lightweight engine which was called "The Manly-Baltzer 5 Radial Engine" Success seemed inevitable.
On October 8, 1903, Langley expected his years of work to become a reality. As journalists and curious onlookers watched, I strode across the deck of a modified houseboat wearing a cork-lined jacket, and climbed into the pilot's seat of a craft called the Great Aerodrome. But when we attempted to launch, part of the Aerodrome got caught, and the biplane was flung into sixteen feet of water a mere fifty yards away from the boat.
Eight weeks later on December 8, 1903 Lanley and I were ready to attempt to fly again. We made numerous modifications to the Aerodrome, and once more I climbed into the cockpit from the houseboat's deck, ready to make history. But as before, disaster struck. This time the cable supports to the wings snapped as the plane was launched, the craft caught again on the launch rail, and it plunged into the river upside down and I nearly drowned. Langley's Great Aerodrome was called "Langley's Folly," and Langley was accused of wasting public funds. Langley had given up. Defeated and demoralized, he had abandoned his decades-long pursuit of flight.
Nine days later on December 17, 1903 the Wright Brothers successfully made the first manned flight on the Kitty Hawk.
Presented May 22, 2004 by The Richmond Hill Historical Society, Maple Grove Cemetery, and The Immaculate Conception School of Jamaica Estates, NY (Dr. Charlene Jaffie, principal).
Copyright © 2004 Carl Ballenas & Nancy Cataldi.
No claim to Old Kew Gardens [.com] color photograph.
No claim to Old Kew Gardens [.com] color photograph.
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