was a thrust of 5 lbs. from the propellers, and a surface of
over 70 square feet to sustain under 30 lbs., but necessary
speed was lacking.'

Stringfellow himself explained the failure as follows:--

'There stood our aerial protegee in all her purity--too
delicate, too fragile, too beautiful for this rough world; at
least those were my ideas at the time, but little did I think
how soon it was to be realised. I soon found, before I had time
to introduce the spark, a drooping in the wings, a flagging in
all the parts. In less than ten minutes the machine was
saturated with wet from a deposit of dew, so that anything like
a trial was impossible by night. I did not consider we could get
the silk tight and rigid enough. Indeed, the framework
altogether was too weak. The steam-engine was the best part.
Our want of success was not for want of power or sustaining
surface, but for want of proper adaptation of the means to the
end of the various parts.'

Henson, who had spent a considerable amount of money in these
experimental constructions, consoled himself for failure by
venturing into matrimony; in 1849 he went to America, leaving
Stringfellow to continue experimenting alone. From 1846 to 1848
Stringfellow worked on what is really an epoch-making item in
the history of aeronautics--the first engine-driven aeroplane
which actually flew. The machine in question had a 10 foot
span, and was 2 ft. across in the widest part of the wing; the
length of tail was 3 ft. 6 ins., and the span of tail in the
widest part 22 ins., the total sustaining area being about 14