The project was made possible through a public/private partnership between Stafford County, the Langley Flight Foundation, the Stafford County Historical Society, the Stafford Regional Airport, and private donors. The aircraft will be on permanent display at the airport, along with interactive kiosks with educational programming on the science and history of flight.
The Foundation is hosting a community open house on May 11th from 11:00 am - 4:00 pm at the Stafford Regional Airport with aviation activities for kids and aerodrome demonstrations every half hour. Aerodrome No. 5 was one of several experimental aircraft developed by Samuel Pierpont Langley, the Secretary of the Smithsonian, in the mid-1890s to demonstrate heavier-than-air mechanical flight. Powered by a 1.5 hp steam-powered engine, the unmanned aerodrome weighed just over 24 pounds and flew 3,330 feet over 1 minute and thirty seconds on May 6, 1896, in Stafford County. T
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Updated -- The Stafford County Board of Supervisors could use coronavirus money to help tell the story of Aerodrome No. 5, now believed to be the first case of unmanned flight.
The Langley Foundation has sought American Rescue Plan Act funding to create a new exhibit at the Stafford Regional Airport, a replica of Aerodrome No. 5, flown by Samuel Pierpont Langley on May 6, 1896, in Stafford County.
dThe foundation's president Chris Hornung hopes to raise $300,000 to build the exhibit. The funds from the county would be a one-to-one match with the foundation responsible for raising the other $150,000.
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The Stafford Regional Airport held an event to announce the launch of its Aerodrome No.5 project, which will tell the story of the county's connection to early American aviation.
Professor Samuel Pierpont Langley is noted for successfully conducting the first heavier-than-air flight on May 6, 1896, with the designated Aerodrome No. 5. Langley chose Chopawamsic Island, a small land mass in the Potomac River between Quantico and Stafford County, as his launching point.
