The Aerial Steam Carriage flys abound 1850ish

Before the big boom of aviation pioneers in the late 19th century there was the Aerial Steam Carriage or Aerial for short. lacemaking-engineers John Stringfellow and William Samuel Henson designed the aircraft in the 1840s but split after their medium sized model failed. Henson quite and later moved to the US, but Stringfellow continued on the project and in 1848 found success with one of his models. Their engine design was very light and powerful, it would later influence Samuel Langley (who made contact with their sons and examined their work) and trough him men like Curtiss.

1843_engraving_of_the_Aerial_Steam_Carriage.jpg
Original design

Stringfellows_flying_machine.JPG
Stringfellow redesign, note the wings


What if they went with Stringfellows design from the get go? Before splitting they tried to get funding from parliament and were laughed out, then they tried Aeronautical engineering pioneer George Cayley who was also unwilling to help for fear that they would fail and discredit his ideas. Could a successful model convince people with the means to invest in them? what would early manned flight look like, and what impact would it have?
 
The second wing design looks more efficient, terms of induced drag and wing tip vortices.
How many bracing wires did the second wing have?
How much vertical fin or rudder did the second version have?
 
yes models based on the first one failed, its the second one that flew, it the actually 1848 model preserved. As for vertical fins, you'll note it doesn't have one, the idea was to imitate the shape of a bird. the full scale version would have had a Downward pointing Stabilizer that you can see a little bit on the first drawing. Wikipedia quotes their original patent that talks about controlling the craft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_steam_carriage#British_patent_9478
 
I've found 100 pounds per horse power for the 1842 model, not sure about 1848 which was redesigned
 
Last edited:
The problem is that steam engines simply do not have the power to weight ratio, I doubt even a steam engine built today with modern science and metallurgy running on liquid fuel or natural gas etc could get any sort of practical HTA craft off the ground. Given the weight of steam engines in the 1840s, the fact they ran on coal, and the materials used to build the craft were not as light as modern ones...

Basically until you get internal combustion engines now way get HTA.
 
The problem is that steam engines simply do not have the power to weight ratio, I doubt even a steam engine built today with modern science and metallurgy running on liquid fuel or natural gas etc could get any sort of practical HTA craft off the ground. Given the weight of steam engines in the 1840s, the fact they ran on coal, and the materials used to build the craft were not as light as modern ones...

Basically until you get internal combustion engines now way get HTA.

do we really need something thats practical, but more prove that manned Heavier than air flight is mechanically possible in the hopes later in the 19th century someone might manage to do so. the steam carriage in OTL had an important impact on the idea of what a plane should look like, if it could at least match the first kitty hawk flight imagine. Assuming it could be do, the initial design was as big as a 737 :eek: it was only during the redesign that it became even realistic. Clément Ader seems to have gotten close he managed uncontrolled flight (but he did fly). there have been steam powered aircraft in the 20th century, though with much more advanced technology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_aircraft
 
Top