Aerial Navigation by Steam without Balloons

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

Theodore Poesche has presented a plan for navigating tthe atmosphere with a car propelled by a steam engine without employing a balloon. His plan is published in the last number of the Journal of the Franklin Institute, and he has sent us a pamphlet containing his plan, illustrated with some engravings. We certainly would like to see Mr. Poesche driving his steam car " through the ether blue," but his plan presents no rational ground for us to hope we shall ever see him perform such a feat. We consider that safe, economical and successful aerial navigation would be the grandest and most important invention perhaps ever made, but no plan yet proposed, no means yet tried, have by actual experiments (the only way to test the value of any invention), proved anything more than that, with a gas more rarified than air, man is enabled to ascend by the help of a huge balloon to some upper strata of air, there to be drifted by the current of wind to some distant place —not without risk and danger in a single case. M. Poesche's plan is to build a long, narrow, and light wooden vessel, with a flat bottom, and with wings of canvas, and propel it by a screw propeller driven by steam power. " My ship," he says, " most nearly resembles the flying fish, which progresses by the spiral action of the tail, while its extended fins support it in the air." He trusts to the propeller to drive his long boat through the air, but he will find himself greatly mistaken. The screw was proposed long ago to drive aerial ships with balloons, but could not do it, and that it will be able to do so now without a balloon, is an impossibility, just as much so as that the author of the plan is able to fly by tying wings to his shoulders ; in fact, the latter case is the most feasible. There is one way to prove we are wrong, and that is for M. Poesche to put his invention into practice, and floor all opposition by actual demonstration.

It’s Time to Stand Up for Science

If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.

I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.

If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.

In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.

There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.

Thank you,

David M. Ewalt, Editor in Chief, Scientific American