Smithsonian Snubs Wright BrothersWhen you visit the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian you see this famous Wright Flyer which made man's first successful flight December 17, 1903. What Smithsonian officials do NOT tell you is that they snubbed the Wright brothers for 45 years, refusing to acknowledge their great accomplishment and install this famous plane in the museum. They did this because their own head of the Smithsonian, Samuel P. Langley, built an airplane shortly before the Wright brothers...but it could NOT fly! Forty-five years is a long time for the Smithsonian to deny the truth. Wilbur died Spring 1912, weakened by his nine-year dispute with the Smithsonian. Orville finally gave up the fight in 1928 and sent his famous plane to the Museum of London as a gesture of contempt for the Smithsonian. American public pressure increased in the years that followed. Many people wondered why our famous Wright Flyer was in London instead of here in America. Orville died January 1948. Later that year the Smithsonian finally agreed to bring the plane back from London to be formally installed December 17, 1948. Unfortunately, neither of the Wright brothers lived long enough to know that their own country officially acknowledged their great accomplishment.
by J. Wagner
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum: Wright Flyer
Yep, I was thinking of the competition between Samuel Langley and the Wright Brothers when I read about last year's successful test flights of Space Ship One over the Mojave Desert, the first space craft that wasn't built by a government agency. They gave me hope that if NASA can't get the Space Shuttle to fly again, private industry will find a way to return us to space. Burt Rutan and his pilots seem to me like a 21st-century version of the Wright Brothers.
Now how does Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin Galactic venture fit into the scheme of things?
Yes, the Smithsonian snubbed the Wrights. No, Wilbur did not die, "weakened by his nine-year dispute with the Smithsonian." He died of typhoid fever, If Wilbur was weakened by anything it was from the law suits he threw at anyone who tried to compete with him, especially Glen Curtiss. (It was during this trial that Curtiss re-worked the Langley design to make it negligibly airworthy.)
While their nation was slow to recognize them, the Wright brothers were fully celebrated in 1909, after Wilbur's triumphs in Europe the year before and Orville's claim of an Army contract in Washington. In June of 1909, the President of the United States personally presented them with a gold medal commissioned by the Congress.
The Smithonsonian and Langley's role in all this have been greatly exaggerated. Here for a fuller look at why Americans ignored the Wrights prior to 1909:
Early Automobiles and Airplanes: The Cultural Lag