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First in Flight (Almost)

One hundred years ago next week, Samuel Langley conducted a manned flight experiment that could have made Stafford County's Widewater as well known today as Kitty Hawk, N.C.

Date published: 10/4/2003

By LEE WOOLF

WIDEWATER, Va., Oct. 8, 2003--

The genius of Samuel P. Langley and the impact of aviation during the past 100 years was celebrated in grand fashion yesterday in this Stafford County community along the shore of the Potomac River.

"We invite the world to join us in honoring Langley's grand achievement on its 100th birthday," said President Bush. "There is no better site to celebrate American ingenuity and persistence than here at Widewater where the course of history was changed forever."

Speaking from the steps of the First in Flight Visitor Center to a crowd of 35,000 that filled the Langley National Memorial Park, Bush said that since 1903, the names Langley and Widewater have inspired scientists and inventors throughout the world"

AH, WHAT MIGHT have been.

If Samuel Langley's test flight at Widewater in the fall of 1903 had been a success, the Wright brothers would be a footnote in aviation history, Kitty Hawk, N.C., would offer little more than sand dunes with an ocean view, and Virginians would be driving cars with "First in Flight" license plates.

And, of course, Widewater would be a national shrine and a world-class tourist attraction--especially next week during what would have been the centennial celebration of Langley's grand success.

"I guess Widewater becoming famous just wasn't in the cards," said Tom Crouch, the senior curator at the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

"But for anyone reading a newspaper during the time before Langley's trial, it seemed fairly likely that Widewater would be the site of the first manned flight."

There were several reasons the public expected the 69-year-old Langley to win the race for successfully putting the first piloted plane into the air and landing it safely.

First, he was arguably America's foremost scientist at the time. Langley was a self-taught scholar with a background in mathematics, architecture and astronomy. He was a pioneer in astrophysics. And he was the secretary of the Smithsonian.

Second, his project was well-financed. In addition to $23,000 from the Smithsonian, Langley had convinced the federal government in 1898 to contribute $50,000, in part because the military hoped he would deliver an aircraft that could aid America's cause in the war against Spain.

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Date published: 10/4/2003