The first brief flight of Clément Ader's…

The first brief flight of Clément Ader's steam-powered fixed-wing aircraft Ader Éole takes place in Satory, France, on October 8, 1890.

It flies uncontrolled approximately fifty meters (one hundred and sixty feet) at a height of twenty centimeters (seven point nine inches), the first take-off of a powered airplane solely under its own power.

Unlike many early flying machines, the Éole does not attempt to fly by flapping its wings, but relies on the lift generated by its wings in forward motion.

With wings resembling mechanical copies of bat wings, its steam engine is an unusually light-weight design driving a propeller at the front of the aircraft, but lacking any means for the pilot to control the direction of flight.

According to late 1907 claims made by Clément Ader, on October 8, 1890, the machine achieves a  short flight at the Chateau d'Armainvilliers in Brie.
The poor power-to-weight ratio of the steam engine and bad weather are felt to limit the flying height achieved.

Ader will later claimed to have flown the Éole again in September 1891, this time to a distance of one hundred meters (three hundred and twenty-eight fee), but this claim is less substantiated.

Some consider the Éole to have been the first true airoplane, given that it left the ground under its own power and carried a person through the air for a short distance, and that the event of October 8, 1890 is the first successful flight.

However, the lack of directional control, and the fact that steam-powered aircraft woll prove to be a dead end, both weigh against these claims.

Modern attempts to recreate and evaluate the craft have met with mixed results.

A full-size replica built in 1990 at the École Centrale Paris will crash on its first flight, injuring its pilot and leading to the termination of the experiment.

Scale models, however, will b successfully flown.