A steampunk airship with working lights and propeller
About this creation
In the late 1870s eccentric Lord Thompson Tennis bought an old tram which had served one of the routes near Brighton. With a desire to make powered flight a reality and to reach British Raj he fitted the tram with a hydrogen-filled balloon and a propeller.
A decade after his purchase and having flown the tram from Brighton to London he embarked on the 4700 mile journey. With an estimated journey time of 80 days he set off on September 20th 1881 having christened the airship 'Imperial Empress' after Queen Victoria.
He was never seen again.
No wreckage was ever found.
The Imperial Empress features working lights and a working propeller which can be seen in the pictures as being slightly blurred. The flames either side of the airship also flicker using custom LEDs.