The Langley Aerodrome Controversy8

Not content to leave the issue to be exclusively determined by the lawyers, at the invitation of the Smithsonian Institution in 1914, Curtiss entered into a contract with the Smithsonian to rebuild and fly the Langley Aerodrome for the consideration of $2,000. The Smithsonian was seeking to rehabilitate the reputation of Lang­ley by demonstrating that the Aerodrome was, indeed, flyable and that the problem with the December 8, 1903 flight attempt was the defec­tive launch mechanism, not the airplane. Curtiss was only too happy to accommodate the Smith­sonian, since he too wanted to prove that the Aerodrome could have flown before the Wrights’ machine.

The disassembled Aerodrome arrived in Hammondsport at the Curtiss facilities in crates loaded into a railroad boxcar. On arrival, it was clear that modifications would have to be made to the Langley machine. The 1903 Manly engine had been in storage for 10 years and would develop only two-thirds of its original power. The carburetor had to be changed. Curtiss pro­vided it with magneto ignition instead of the original dry cell batteries. The airplane had no wheels, no skids, and no floats. Curtiss added pontoons to the Aerodrome, which required addi­tional support and bracing. The floats added about 340 pounds of weight and added drag. The central stiffening keel was removed. The origi­nal propellers were used but one wing had to be rebuilt, as well as replacing several broken ribs in other wings. The wings had to be recovered with cloth and varnished. The Aerodrome did not have ailerons or wing warping; control was limited to the dihedral of the wings, the vertical tail rudder, and the shifting of the pilot’s weight in order to maintain lateral balance. No changes were made to the system of balance. Curtiss stated that not a single change had been made to the Aerodrome that could have improved its fly­ing qualities.

The reassembled machine was taken down to Lake Keuka where it was successfully made airborne for several short hops in the late spring of 1914. This proved to the satisfaction of Cur­tiss and the Smithsonian that the Aerodrome was, and always had been, flyable, and but for the defective launch mechanism on the Lang­ley barge, it would have been the first pow­ered, controlled flight in history. The Aerodrome was then fitted with a larger and more power­ful engine and, during September and October

1914, it was able to lift off the water for flights of up to 3,000 feet.

■ The Jenny

While aircraft development had been seriously stagnated in the United States by the Wright patent litigation, somehow Curtiss kept driv­ing forward. He visited the factory of Thomas Sopwith in England in 1913, and was impressed by the progress shown in the development of the tractor designs Sopwith was producing. The – Model J, a 90-horsepower tractor, was launched on May 10, 1914, followed by the Model N, also with a 90-horsepower tractor engine. These were supplied to the British and American armies and navies as trainer aircraft during 1914. In

1915, Curtiss produced the aircraft that was to be known as the “Jenny,” and which combined the best aspects of the “J” and “N” models.

World War I had begun in the summer of 1914, and the demand for aircraft and engines spiraled upward. Although the Jenny was too slow, too underpowered, and lacked the perfor­mance capabilities required of fighter aircraft in World War I, it fit well as a trainer both in England and the United States. Rapid improve­ments in design and increased horsepower in the Jenny made it the trainer of choice for the war. The Jenny first used the Curtiss OX 90-horse­power engines, but later in the war the 150-horse­power Hispano-Suiza engine, built by the Wright Company, was installed.

Thousands of Jennys were produced dur­ing the war, and afterward were used by both the Post Office in the airmail service (before being replaced by the De Havilland DH-4) and by the Army for training. The private sector was flooded with Jennys, which made for bargain prices for barn-stormers, banner-towers, and flight schools and made the Jenny a household word in an era when hardly anyone flew. A newly designed Jenny was placed on the market in 1920 as the “Oriole,” and flew in the competitive market for almost twenty years.