Langley's Law

It's interesting to note that originally the tablet was planned to celebrate "Langley's Law" as Samuel P. Langley's major contribution to aeronautics. Langley had first proposed this law in 1893, saying that it required less power to fly fast than to fly slow. The Smithsonian sent a letter with the proposed copy for the tablet to several aviation experts for comment, among them the Wright brothers. Wilbur Wright replied that it would be unwise and unfair for the Smith to rest Langley’s reputation in aerodynamics on the "so-called Langley Law" or upon the computations which gave rise to it. Wilbur suspected, as did others, that Langley's experimental methods were flawed. In fact, Langley hadn’t performed the experiment at all; he just predicted the results. Practical experience in aeronautics later proved the "law" to be untrue.

Langley's Law