John Stringfellow, yet another British inventor, came from the weaving and textile industry. He had a fondness for steam engines, who doesn't? and together with his partners had the distinction of forming the worlds first airline in 1848. Now they had no airplane, and if they did it would run on steam, so when they rolled out the idea to investors it kind of stunk the place out.
Sadly, his designs were good. Proven by the fact that he made several very successful flights with a ten foot wingspan model in 1848! His partners had left for other parts by this time and Stringfellow was left to tinker on his own.
He and his son kept on building steam powered airplanes and just about all of them flew. He never did get to fly in one though. The machines he designed, both the dream machines like the Aerial Steam Carriage (Christ that sounds unsafe) and the actual models that flew were uncannily like modern aircraft.
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