Victorian drone leaves the houseboat
A Victorian drone weighing around 25 pounds was catapulted from a Potomac houseboat in 1896. Humanity therefore invented unmanned flight before inventing a sensible place to launch it.
Samuel Langley’s engine driven Aerodrome rose around 70 to 100 feet near Chopawamsic Island. It flew without a pilot, a camera or a delivery contract. It also avoided the later nuisance of somebody shouting about their garden.
The specially designed houseboat combined aviation’s two central questions. Will it stay in the air? Why is the laboratory drifting toward Maryland?
The Potomac hosts an early departure
“We achieved full autonomous operation,” said Sir Percival Propwash, secretary of Experimental Plummeting. “Autonomy meant nobody was brave enough to sit in it.”
A catapult sent the craft skyward. The safety demonstration involved pointing at the river and removing one’s best hat.
The Aerodrome helped show that powered heavier than air flight could work. Officials immediately began preparing a baggage fee and an apology delivered by telegram.
NASA’s satellite view now shows the island and its aviation history. Modern orbital technology can look down on the place where a wooden machine briefly looked down on very surprised fish.
Langley’s later full sized attempts fared less well. The smaller craft had already completed aviation’s purest mission. It took off, landed somewhere inconvenient and made engineers request another budget.
The flight log remains concise
Historians recognise an important step in aviation. Local herons still call it an unauthorised incursion by a noisy wardrobe. The flight log survives in full: up, forward, wet.
Read the real story: NASA’s account of Langley’s Potomac experiments.
