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Path of aerodrome flights, May 6 and November 28, 1896, near Quantico, Va., on the Potomac River – Vintage Wall Art

Path of aerodrome flights, May 6 and November 28, 1896, near Quantico, Va., on the Potomac River, [published 1911] — historic print
Path of aerodrome flights, May 6 and November 28, 1896, near Quantico, Va., on the Potomac River, [published 1911]. Historic print from the Ballooning collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

A window into the past: Path of aerodrome flights, May 6 and November 28, 1896, near Quantico, Va., on the Potomac River, preserved in this historic print. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.

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Path of aerodrome flights, May 6 and November 28, 1896, near Quantico, Va., on the Potomac River

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Rather than a photograph of the machine, this plate maps where the aerodrome traveled on two days in 1896, May 6 and November 28, over the Potomac River near Quantico, Virginia. The aerodrome was Samuel Langley's unmanned, steam-powered model aircraft, launched from a houseboat moored on the river. Its May flight, which covered roughly 3,000 feet, was the first sustained, powered flight of an unpiloted heavier-than-air machine, and the diagram lets readers trace its path against the shoreline. The plate appeared in 1911 as part of the Smithsonian's *Langley Memoir on Mechanical Flight*, a record of his experiments from 1887 to 1896.

Created / published[published 1911]
Medium1 print.
GenreDiagrams 1910-1920.Periodical illustrations 1910-1920.Prints 1910-1920.
NotesIllus. in: Smithsonion contributions to knowledge, vol. 27, no. 3. Langley memoir on mechanical flight. Part 1. 1887 to 1896 / Washington : Smithsonian Institution, 1911, by Samuel Pierpont Langley. pl. 19.
SubjectsAeronautics--1910-1920.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,536 × 1,253 px · prints to 5 × 4 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-143374

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