A strong passion for flying is deeply rooted within our cherished family history. We are a precision helicopter lift services operation. Our great-uncle Samuel Pierpont Langley was one of the most famous scientist of his day.
Samuel Pierpont Langley was born in Massachusetts in 1834. He was an American astronomer, physicist, inventor of the bolometer and pioneer of aviation. Despite having no more than a high school education, he worked for a short while in Chicago and St. Louis as an architectural engineer, was invited to be an assistant at the Harvard College Observatory, and taught mathematics at the U.S Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was when he was invited to Pittsburgh to serve as director of the Allegheny Observatory that his career and national fame truly began. In 1867 he became the director of the Allegheny Observatory and professor of astronomy at the Western University of Pennsylvania and was the founder of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
Langley attempted to make a working piloted heavier-than-air aircraft. His models flew, but his two attempts as piloted flight were not successful. Langley began experimenting with rubber-band powered models and gliders in 1887. He built a rotating arm (functioning similar to a wind tunnel) and made larger flying models powered by miniature steam engines.
We strive to uphold his spirit of innovation and excellence in our daily operations on the ground and in the air as we serve our customers from coast to coast.