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TLS, nine pages, 7.25 x 10.5, personal letterhead, December 2, 1943. Important and exceptionally lengthy letter to Major Lester D. Gardner of the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences, in which Wright revisits the bitter Smithsonian-Wright controversy and offers a detailed technical and historical reassessment of the Langley aircraft engine, arguing that Stephen M. Balzer had been denied proper credit for his role in its development. Wright opens: “I thought you might be interested in what I have learned in the past two years concerning the origin of the Langley motor,” explaining that he had long believed the engine to be “entirely a creation of Manly’s,” but was “astonished” to discover that “the basic design of the motor was Balzer’s.” He proceeds to analyze the evolution of the five-cylinder radial engine in remarkable detail, discussing Balzer’s original design, Charles M. Manly’s alterations, conflicting horsepower claims, lubrication and carburetion systems, and the Smithsonian’s promotion of Langley’s legacy.
Wright writes with unusual technical precision and barely concealed indignation, observing that Manly “overstates the power he obtained” from his “re-creation,” and questioning whether Manly’s horsepower measurements could be trusted “any more accurate than his measurement of the thrust.” He further asserts that “Manly’s friends always speak disparagingly of Balzer’s work,” while pointing out that Balzer’s engine already embodied key features later credited to Manly: “It was from Balzer that Manly derived the radial system!” Wright also highlights what he saw as telling omissions in the official account, noting that Manly described the lubrication and carburetor systems “as though they were of his own invention,” though both had been used in the Balzer-Langley engine.
The letter culminates in a forceful indictment of the Smithsonian’s handling of early aviation history, accusing Secretary Charles D. Walcott of attempting “to take from the Wright Brothers and give to Dr. Langley the credit for the scientific data on which the Wright aeroplane was based,” and suggesting that the same institutional impulse had minimized Balzer’s contribution to the Langley motor. Wright concludes memorably: “I think Balzer was treated scandalously. First he was wrecked financially through his contract with the Smithsonian and then was robbed by the Smithsonian…of the credit that was his due.” Includes several ink additions and underlinings by Wright. In fine condition, with light soiling to the bottom right corner of each page.
A remarkable late-life statement by the surviving Wright brother, combining firsthand memory, engineering expertise, and lingering resentment over the Smithsonian’s 1914 tests of the rebuilt Langley Aerodrome—an episode Wright regarded as an attempt to diminish the Wright brothers’ priority at Kitty Hawk.
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