Langley, at that time sixty-nine years of age, took this defeat so keenly to heart that it hastened his death, which occurred three years later.

"Failure in the aerodrome itself," he wrote, "or its engines there has been none; and it is believed that it is at the moment of success, and when the engineering problems have been solved, that a lack of means has prevented a continuance of the work." It was truly "at the moment of success" that Langley's work was stopped.
On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers made the first successful experiment in which a machine carrying a man rose by its own power, flew naturally and at even speed, and descended without damage.

These brothers, Wilbur and Orville, who at last opened the long besieged lanes of the air, were born in Dayton, Ohio.

Their father, a clergyman and later a bishop, spent his leisure in scientific reading and in the invention of a typewriter which, however, he never perfected.

He inspired an interest in scientific principles in his boys' minds by giving them toys which would stimulate their curiosity.