Dr. Peter Jakab, early flight curator and Associate Director for Collections and Curatorial Affairs at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, discusses Samuel P. Langley and his development of the ill-fated Aerodrome A. During his tenure as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Langley conducted aeronautical experiments, building a series of gasoline- and steam-powered large model Aerodromes in the 1890s and early twentieth century, the most successful in 1896. This led him to create and test a full-sized, human-carrying airplane, the Aerodrome A, in 1903. Unfortunately, the aircraft design was flawed and test flights met with disastrous results. The Wright brothers became the first to develop and fly a successful powered airplane.