In 1842, British engineers William Samuel Henson and John Stringfellow received a patent for a flying machine. Unlike previous attempts made with gliders and hot-air balloons, Henson’s and Stringfellow’s invention was unique because it was the first attempt to move towards powered flight. Just six years later, the world’s first steam powered airplane took flight. Remarkably, this happened more than half a century before the historic flight by the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk.
A lithograph by Thomas Picken imagines “Ariel” flying over the Nile, with the pyramids in the background.
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