Geograph - photograph every grid square

Although the Wright Brothers succeeded with internal combustion power, there were several earlier attempts to fly with lightweight powerful steam engines. Sir Hiram Maxim, of Maxim gun fame, made one such unsuccessful attempt with an aeroplane with a pair of these side by side compound steam engines, each producing 180 horsepower and driving a propeller 17.8 feet diameter.

The prettiest steam aeroplane engine is in the Musee des Arts et Metiers in Paris and also powered an unsuccessful aeroplane. At Duxford there is a small engine that was used in an ornithopter - a not unsurprisingly unsuccessful flapping wing machine.