Englishman John Stringfellow

John Stringfellow

John Stringfellow was born in Sheffield, England and is known for his work on the Aerial Steam Carriage with William Samuel Henson....

 produced a number of aircraft designs.

The Aerial Steam Carriage

Aerial Steam Carriage

The Aerial Steam Carriage, also named Ariel, was a flying machine patented in 1842 that was supposed to carry passengers into the air. It was, in practice, incapable of flight since it had insufficient power from its heavy steam engine to fly. A more successful model was built in 1848 which was...

was designed by Stringfellow and William Samuel Henson

William Samuel Henson

William Samuel Henson was a pre-Wright brothers aviation engineer and inventor.Henson was born on 3 May 1812 , in Nottingham, England. Henson was involved in lace-making in Chard, which increasingly was mechanized at that time, and he obtained a patent on improved lace-making machines in 1835...

in 1848, and is often considered to be the first practical design for a powered and manned flying machine, although only a model was ever flown. The machine had a basic design that was much closer to later commercial construction than many later experimental types.

Stringfellow exhibited a steam-powered model triplane at the Aeronautical Society Exhibition, Crystal Palace, London, in 1868.