Lithograph by W. L Walton showing Henson's Aerial Steam Carriage in an imagined flight over a city. William Henson(1812-1888), a pre-Wright brothers aviation engineer and inventor, patented his Aerial Steam Carriage in 1842. Although it never flew, the aircraft's design influenced later aviation pioneers. Henson filed a patent on "The Aerial" in 1842 and ambitiously set up the Aerial Transit Company, a worldwide airline service, with John Stringfellow.