This steam-powered, 3-ton aircraft sported at 100-foot wing span. The craft was designed and built by Dexter resident Hiram Maxim, whose father conceived the idea in 1856. Hiram took sketches that his father had done and turned them into reality. Maxim's airplane flew in England in 1894, a full decade ahead of the Wright Brithers' more famous flight at Kitty Hawk. Hiram Maxim, a native of Sangerville, was knighted by the queen of England for his accomplishments, which his native country was slow to appreciate and slower in accepting. Maxim's plane roared down 1,800 feet of railroad track balanced by out-riggers fitted on wooden rails. The craft was configured with two 18-foot propellers driven by steam engines that developed 362-hp, and it reached terrifying speeds, tearing up over 110 feet of rail as it slipped the bonds of earth and made history. Maxim and his three anxious assistants must have watched through ever widening eyes from their lofty perches in the open seating that could scarcely be called cockpits aboard the revolutionary aircraft.

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