Alexandre Goupil was a French engineer of note who designed a bird-like flying machine in 1883. The sesquiplane (a monoplane with additional half-wings) was to be powered by a steam engine (mounted within the deep rounded body of the machine) driving a single tractor propeller and was to have wheeled landing gear. A rudder was to be mounted below the horizontal tail surface. He built and tested an unpowered version of his design, with a wing span of just over 19 feet 8 inches, in December of that same year. The test machine exhibited considerable lift, hoisting itself and two men into the air while under test in a wind of about 14 mph.