The Century of Flight

Episode Synopsis

Japanese manpowered flight competition. Manpowered flight - the story from Icarus and Daedalus to Kanellopolous’s 1988 distance record. Footage includes many bizarre attempts down through the decades, with a fair degree of colour and humour. Diagrams explain the problems of manpowered flight. It will never fly - Zany home-made flying machines 1900-39. Humour is the keynote. Wartime Oddballs - German piggyback aircraft and other projects, the flying jeep, and many more. White Elephants - expensive projects that hardly got off the ground. These will include Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose, the Northrop Flying Wing, and the British TSR project. The one that worked - Voyager’s 1986 non-stop circumnavigation.