Wright vs. Manly

In the Smithsonian Institution at Washington stands a very old airplane with a stern but bedraggled air, like that of a dead buzzard stuffed by an inexpert taxidermist. It was built by Inventor S. P. Langley in 1903, is said to have once wobbled in the ether over the Potomac River. On it is a label: "The first man-carrying airplane in the world capable of sustained flight."

Orville Wright, unimpressed by the chauvinistic claims made for this patriarchal buzzard brought forward some weeks ago, certain criticisms of the label (TIME, May 11). Its statement was true, he declared, except for the fact that the Langley plane had never been capable of rising from the ground for longer than five seconds.

Countered, last week, one Charles M. Manly, pilot of the plane in Langley's experiments: "Launch the Langley machine from its original catapult and let it write its own label. . . . Test it in its original condition of 1903 and invite the world to hear it speak. . . ."

Retorted Wright: "The earliest date on which it can be claimed that the Langley machine was capable of sustained flight is the date on which the defects which prevented its free flight in 1903 were remedied. That date has not yet arrived."

Mr. Manly invited Mr. Wright to put up $10,000 which, with a like sum of his own, would recondition the ancient plane for flight. This offer was declined by Mr. Wright, who professed to have better uses for his money. Meanwhile, the plane, which may be hoisted once more by its own petard, retains the proud tag.