It is just one hundred years ago, towards the end of March, 1843, that the invention or design of the first power-driven aeroplane, Henson's so-called “Aerial Steam Carriage,” was made public to the world at large. The centenary marks an important step in the history of heavier-than-air flight, and in view of the development arrived at in the aeroplane of to-day—its great size, immense power, long range, and astonishing speed—the event assumes, in retrospect, a greater interest and significance than has been hitherto accorded to it. It is fitting, therefore—the more so in that the ‘inventor’ was an Englishman—that this notable occasion should not be allowed to pass unnoticed in the pages of the Royal Aeronautical Society's Journal. There is, moreover, the additional reason that the Society can claim an indirect connection with Henson's project, in as much as John Stringfellow, who was closely associated with Henson in their joint struggles to produce a model flying-machine, was one of the Society's most active and enthusiastic members in its early years.