In 1896, this American succeeded in the flight of a model aircraft called "Aerodrome", powered by a steam engine. It flew at 40km an hour. And it flew more than 1km.
Hearing this news, American President McKinley decided that the state would support his model aircraft.



Receiving support from the state, Langley built a real aircraft, "Aerodrome A", on 7 October in 1903. The trial of this flight was done on the Potomac River in the U.S.A.
From a catapult, the engine-driven "Aerodrome A" had started to fly, but soon failed and fell down into the river. Fortunately, pilot Manly was rescued from the river.
Langly, a mathematician and astronomer, said, "If you can drive a car in a two dimensional world, you could easily handle aircraft in a three dimensional world." He was also one of the people who thought little of gravity. The second experiment, two months after the first one, resulted in failure.
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But nine days after this experiment,
a big event happened...