Langley’s 1896 Aerodrome
Another card from the Wills’s Cigarettes collection included a flying machine by Samuel Langley, an American inventor and aviation pioneer who served as the third secretary of the Smithsonian Institution starting in 1887.
Langley’s Aerodrome Number 5, which was featured in the card collection, was the inventor’s first genuine success with flight and is on display at the National Air and Space Museum.
The Aerodrome flew roughly 3/4 of a mile in 1896 and is credited as the first successful flight of an “unpiloted, engine-driven, heavier-than-air craft of substantial size,” according to the Smithsonian.
