At the beginning of the twentieth century there was a boom as people worldwide tried to figure out how to fly.

People’s imaginations had been captured as hydrogen balloons became all the rage in Paris and Britain; and an even larger airship combining a balloon and an internal combustion engine was flown by a Brazillian around the Eiffel tower.

Everyone wondered, “Who would be the first to figure out how to build a craft for a sustained, powered flight?”

In the United States, Samuel Pierpont Langley desperately wanted to be that man.

Support Ballsy History