There was an uproar. Orville had the 1903 Flyer crated and sent across the ocean to the Science Museum of London. But the new secretary of the Smithsonian, Charles Greeley Abbott, was sticking to the assertion that the secretly altered 1903 Langley aerodrome had been airworthy, even though there was documented proof that it had been modified and Orville's own brother had been witness to the trials. America had lost an important piece of history to the English. Lester Gardner of Aviation magazine put the controversy into the public view with an article in which he wrote, “For many years it has been no secret that the original Wright airplane would not be entrusted to the Smithsonian so long as the influences that had conducted the Langley propaganda in this country were in charge…. But now [that] Orville Wright has decided to send it to the English Museum the public may awake to some of the damage done by the zeal of Langley's friends.”1

Secretary Walcott, before he died, had dug in his heels and commissioned a report by Joseph Ames and David Taylor, who were members of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Although Ames and Taylor were never given a list of the changes that Curtiss made, they backed up Walcott and the Smithsonian by saying that, “structurally the original Langley machine was capable of level and controlled flight.”² They conceded that the Wrights were the first to fly but stated that Langley, “after years of effort, following a different road, was in sight of the same goal.”³

Orville Wright saw the report for the whitewash that it was and, in January 1928, the crated 1903 Wright Flyer was lifted into the hold of an ocean liner, lashed down, and stenciled. The steamship cleared New York harbor and passed the Statue of Liberty, carrying away the genius of Wilbur and the treasure of the nation.

Letters poured into the Smithsonian. Secretary Abbott developed a form letter to try to establish that the Smithsonian could not admit it was wrong when it wasn't. A lot of the letters were from children. Why couldn't you just admit you were wrong and get Mr. Wright to bring his airplane back to America? A lot of the letters were from teachers who complained that they could not explain to their children why the first airplane of manned flight was in London on display but not in America where the Wright brothers had flown.

Secretary Abbott explained that, in fact, the first plane of flight was right here in the Smithsonian. He had changed the plate under Professor Langley's plane to read, “Langley Aerodrome—The Original Langley Flying Machine of 1903 Restored.”4 Abbott then went on to explain that Langley's plane had edged out the Wright brothers’ plane by only a few weeks. The teachers did not take the bait. There was a collective sniff on seeing the Langley plane. The question was put forth again: Why did the Smithsonian not admit that it was wrong and that the Wright brothers were first, so that teachers could then bring their students to see the 1903 Flyer that had flown at Kitty Hawk and solved the problem of flight?

Abbott had taken over after Secretary Walcott had died in 1927. Secretary Abbott believed the trouble had really begun when Walcott refused the Wright Flyer in 1910.⁵ Walcott had been intent on rebuilding Langley's reputation and the Smithsonian's, and he had turned down the brothers’ offer. He said the Wrights themselves owed Langley a great debt, and he backed up the Smithsonian's assertion with a quote from Wilbur Wright's speech to the Western Society of Engineers in Chicago: “Some years ago Prof. Langley called attention to the great economy of thrust which might be obtained by using very high speeds and from this many were led to suppose that high speed was essential to success in a motor-driven machine.”⁶ This, along with a letter to Chanute upon Langley's death, in which Wilbur recognized the secretary's contribution to aeronautics: “The knowledge that the head of the most prominent scientific institution of America believed in the possibility of human flight was one of the influences that led us to undertake the preliminary investigation that preceded our active work. He recommended to us the books which enabled us to form sane ideas at the onset. It was a helping hand at a critical time and we shall always be grateful.”⁷ This also “helped create a false impression over the world that the Wrights had acknowledged indebtedness to Langley's scientific work.”⁸ Abbott used the presentation of the Samuel P. Langley Medal for Aerodromics by former Secretary Walcott to the Wrights to indicate to the world that they had relied on Langley's data.

That Secretary Walcott had refused the offer of the 1903 Flyer in 1910 and asked for other Wright flyers was not important to Abbott, but one sees a plan of positioning in the works. It would not do to have the 1903 Flyer when Langley's plane was the real inheritor of the title of “first plane capable of flight.” Orville Wright wanted a complete retraction; he was basically forcing the Smithsonian to confess that it had lied about Langley's plane and to admit that there was only one plane capable of flight in 1903, and that was Wrights’. That Abbott could not do. It would undo all the hard work Walcott had put in to restoring the public's faith and trust in the Smithsonian. He had pulled Langley's reputation out of the ash heap of history and put it up on the mantle again of the Smithsonian, keeper of all that was great and noble in scientific discovery.

Walcott died in 1927, and a year later Orville shipped his 1903 Flyer to London. Abbott had inherited a hell of a mess. No, the teachers would just have to come see Langley's plane and explain that not everything was as it seemed. The fact is Abbott still believed Langley's plane could have flown. As Tom Crouch cites in The Bishop's Boys, “The Wrights may have been the first to fly, but Langley had been capable of doing it before them.”9

This is what Secretary Walcott believed, too, rationalizing that the basics of Langley's plane were there and Glenn had merely adjusted the existing technology. The Literary Digest had backed him up and “proclaimed Dr. Langley the Discoverer of the Air,” as Crouch points out in his biography of the Wrights.¹⁰ The French publication L'Aerophile had also swung in with support and praised the Smithsonian for doing “posthumous justice to a great pioneer.”¹¹ Abbott knew, and Orville knew, that soon history would be rewritten forever, with Langley at the top of the aeronautical pyramid. But there were those from the other side who had called out the Smithsonian. Griffith Brewer had given a lecture in 1914 titled “Aviation's Greatest Controversy.”¹² That didn't help. Then articles started appearing: “On a Matter of Fraud” and “The Scandal of the First Man-Carrying Airplane.”¹³ That all would have died away if Orville had not announced that he was sending the 1903 Flyer to the Science Museum of London in 1928.

Abbott had been on the job for only a few years, and he felt like a man keeping his fingers in the dyke. Every time he countered an argument against the Smithsonian, there was another coming in. As stated before, Lester Gardner, founder of Aviation, had turned against him as well, pointing out that “the original Wright plane could not be entrusted to the Smithsonian as long as the influences that had conducted the Langley propaganda were in charge…. But now that Orville Wright has decided to send it to the English Museum the public may awake to the damage done by the zeal of Langley's friends.”14

And again, before he died, Walcott had gone on the offensive and commissioned a report by Joseph Ames and David Taylor, two highly respected aviation authorities, who concluded that “structurally the original Langley machine was capable of level and controlled flight.”¹⁵

It did not stop Orville from sending the Flyer to London. The 1903 Flyer headed overseas, and the letters from teachers and kids continued. Secretary Abbott had not been feeling so great lately. Why couldn't Orville spread around the credit? It wasn't like they had found what nobody else did. Someone would have solved the problem sooner or later. Abbott had to keep telling himself that. Besides, Langley's plane might have flown…with a few adjustments.