In 1842, British engineers William Samuel Henson and John Stringfellow received a patent for a flying machine.
Just six years later, the worlds first steam powered airplane took flight.
A lithograph by Thomas Picken imagines Ariel flying over the Nile, with the pyramids in the background.
Humans have been enamored with flight since antiquity.
Daedalus and Icarus escaped the tower by using wings constructed from feathers attached to their arms with beeswax.
But Icarus ignored Daedaluss warning and plunged to his death.
He also discovered the importance of cambered wings, the characteristic curved shape that is fundamental to flight.
A guide wire was attached to prevent the airplane from veering off its course.
This was the first flight in history for a propeller-driven fixed-wing aircraft.
The Aerial Steam Carriage as imagined by the lithographer W. L Walton.
Despite the initial success, subsequent endeavors were unfruitful.
Henson got disheartened and quit leading to the dissolution of the company in 1848.
It weighed just 9 pounds.
Multiple witnesses attested to its gradual ascent upon launch during several instances in 1848.
Stringfellow himself harbored confidence in these demonstrations, viewing them as proof of the viability of powered flight.
A model of Ariel in Chard, Somerset.
The studios in Chard and in Crewkerne are where some of his flying vehicle machines were photographed.
Stringfellow also invented and patented compact electric batteries, which were used in early medical treatment.
