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The Potomac Island Where History Took Flight - selected image

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Data acquired August 1, 2024
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Data acquired August 1, 2024
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The Potomac Island Where History Took Flight

Samuel Pierpont Langley conducted the first successful flight of an unpiloted, engine-driven, heavier-than-air craft from a houseboat near Chopawamsic Island in the Potomac River.

This image originally appeared in the NASA Earth Observatory story The Potomac Island Where History Took Flight.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Aerodrome photo by Alexander Graham Bell. Langley Aerodrome No. 5 in flight photograph by Frederick E. Fowle, though a similar photograph is also attributed to Bell. Path of aerodrome flights map originally published by the Smithsonian. Story by Adam Voiland.

Published August 19, 2025
Data acquired August 1, 2024

Sources:: Landsat 9 > OLI-2; Photograph