Ader’s Flying Bird Eole
The card collection also featured this strange-looking illustration of the Ader Eole, a flying machine designed by French aviation pioneer Clément Ader. And while Ader claimed the Eole to be the first piloted plane to take off under its own power in 1890, achieving a flight of 50 meters using a 20 horsepower steam engine, there’s some debate about what the inventor actually accomplished without witnesses.
If nothing else, the design of Ader’s aircraft was so cumbersome that it sounded rather humorous. From Britannica:
In order to control the machine, the operator had to manipulate two foot pedals, six hand cranks, and the engine controls. The control system was clearly impractical.
Genius, if you ask us.
