The Flying Steam Company, to China in Twenty-Four Hours Certain

[England], [1843]?. As issued.. Very good overall; good color.. Folio, printed on linen in raspberry colored red ink on a cream ground; meas. appx. 465 x 620+ mm. This commemorative print depicts a flying machine above a panoramic scene of a group of figures with telescopes, and beside a steam boat, a locomotive, and a stage coach, with a title along the top margin, and various accompanying descriptive and satirical texts mentioning Malta, Suez, the "Barbarian Fire Ship" business, the Thames Tunnel, the East India Company, etc., selvedges to left and right-hand sides, top and bottom edges hemmed by hand,

Starting about 1838, Henson became interested in aviation. In April 1841 he patented an improved lightweight steam engine, and with fellow lacemaking-engineer John Stringfellow. In 1842 he designed a large passenger-carrying steam-powered monoplane, with a wing span of 150 feet, which he named the "Henson Aerial Steam Carriage". He and Stringfellow received a patent on it in 1843. Henson, Stringfellow, Frederick Marriott, and D.E. Colombine, incorporated as the Aerial Transit Company in 1843 in England; the flying machine was named Ariel. The Ariel's wings were rectangular, and were formed by wooden spars covered with fabric, and braced, internally and externally, with wires. The Aerial Steam Carriage was to be powered by two contra-rotating six-bladed propellers mounted in the rear in a push-type system. It proved unable to fly but by 1848 a model version was, in fact, built and flown a short distance inside of a building. The two men envisaged an aerial transit company that would be able to carry passengers and goods. The handkerchief or print was produced to promote interest in the venture and provides details of the airplane in the printed text and records the public skepticism for the project. Another, inferior copy with stains and punctures, fetched over $7500. at auction in the UK in March of 2021.