Samuel P.Langley was respected physicist, as well as an early pioneer in aviation. He was born August 22, 1834, in Roxbury, Massachusetts, near Boston. He became interested in experimental science early in his life, building a telescope as a boy with his brother and making astronomical observations. His formal education ended with his graduation from the Boston High School in 1851.

He worked in an architectural office in Boston and at Harvard College, and in 1864 and 1865 he visited observatories and research centers in Europe with his brother. In 1866 he became an assistant professor of mathematics at the United States Naval Academy, where he had charge of a small observatory. The next year he became professor of physics and astronomy at the Western University of Pennsylvania. In 1889 he was elected secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the national museum and center for research in Washington, DC. He held this position until his death.

Langley began studies on heavier-than-air flight in Pennsylvania; and he continued these studies at the Smithsonian Institution. After studying the source of power in bird flight, he constructed steam-powered models which flew successfully and attracted considerable attention. The Smithsonian awarded him $50,000 for the construction of a full-size passenger-carrying machine, or aerodrome, as Langley called it. A quarter-size model, equipped with a water-cooled gasoline engine was flown successfully, but the full-size machine, catapulted from a houseboat on the Potomac River October 8, 1903, and again on December 8, failed both times. Discouraged by newspaper criticism, public misunderstanding, and lack of funds for further experiments, Langley discontinued his work in aeronautics.

In 1914, eight years after Langley's death, several changes were made in his "aerodrome" machine, and it was flown at Hammondsport, N.Y., by Glenn H.Curtiss. The United States Navy honored Langley by naming its first aircraft carrier after him. An Air Force Base in Virginia is also named after him.