THIS year marks the 160th anniversary of John Stringfellow creating the world's first aircraft to fly under its own power in Chard . . . and the inventor's revolutionary work is one of the most popular and interesting displays on show at Chard Museum.
Stringfellow was born near Sheffield in 1799, but moved to Chard to work in the lace industry when he was 21.
He became interested in flight, and with Chard resident William Henson he des-igned a 20ft wingspan monoplane to be powered by one of his own steam engines. It was built, but it never flew.
After Henson emigrated to America Stringfellow designed and built a smaller monoplane with a 10ft wingspan and a wooden frame covered in silk.
It was powered by a tiny steam engine housed in the gondola below the wings.
In June, 1848, just months after Henson emigrated, Stringfellow successfully flew his model inside a long room in a disused lace mill in Chard.
The model was launched from a supporting inclined wire several yards long, which ensured that the machine started flying at a reasonable speed and in the right direction.
Stringfellow's achievement was recreated in the 1980s by the BBC for one of Adam Hart-Davis' Local Heroes' programmes when a replica of the aircraft, powered by a small modern petrol engine was successfully flown in a lace mill in Chard.
Stringfellow, who died in 1883, also dem-onstrated a steam-powered triplane at an exhibition arranged by the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain at the Crystal Pal-ace, London, in 1868.
Twenty years after his death, aided by the new internal combustion engine, the Wright brothers took to the air at Kitty-hawk, and while the history books would have us believe they were the innovators of flight we know differently here in Chard!
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