A hilarious countdown of the black sheep of aviation, aircraft that have embarrassed their builders, enraged the owners and terrified their pilots. These are stories of aircraft that should have never been built, including highly imaginative concepts to “fly” tanks and jeeps directly onto the battlefield, a real flying saucer and starkly bizarre efforts to design and build a submarine that flies. We come to understand why these ideas were doomed from the start…
Meet Brian Boland—the beloved, eccentric hot air balloonist and artist from the rural Upper Valley of Vermont.
There was a time when the DC-3 was the world's most successful aircraft and an indispensable tool: its military version became a crucial factor in achieving peace in various wars and helped many people rise from the ashes during the inevitable humanitarian crises that follow every conflict. But now the Basler factory located in Oshkosh, near Chicago, in the United States, seems to have become a sinister airplane boneyard.
An eccentric history buff lives in a cabin in the woods but spends most of his time flying his biplane.
A celebration of those still flying the last remaining Grumman Albatross, a seaplane from a long-lost era of adventure and romance.
Barnstorming is the true story of an unexpected friendship that developed between a farm family and two pilots who literally dropped out of the sky. Their friendship has created a new tradition out of an old one long gone: barnstorming.
Best of the 2009 convention, including the Airbus A-380 ~ WhiteKnightTwo ~ Red Bull Helicopter ~ the Erickson Air-Crane ~Meet AirVenture’s “Air Boss” ~ Sully Sullenberger and Jeff Skiles ~ Performance by Jeff Dunham ~ Opening Concert by the Doobie Brothers ~ Appearance of American Chopper TV Crew ~ Elvis the Erickson Aircrane Helicopter ~ reunion of the Concorde ~ greatest air show pilots in the worlds ~ and the world’s best Homebuilt, War bird, Vintage, Light plane, and Aerobatic aircraft and much more including several bonus features.
We briefly visit a vast array of various flying objects.
This 2004 documentary by Werner Herzog diaries the struggle of a passionate English inventor to design and test a unique airship during its maiden flight above the jungle canopy.
Panair do Brasil revives the story of the most important commercial aviation company in Brazil, between 1930 and 1965, with its commercial daring in establishing routes to the four corners of a continental country, taking the adventure of air transport to never-before imagined places, as well as the first international routes. Four decades after it closed its doors, it still retains a marked presence in the country's collective imagination for its pioneering spirit and stories of heroic deeds and for the bewilderment which was aroused by the facts surrounding its closure during the military regime.
On 21 December 1988 a Pan Am 747 jet exploded over the small Scottish town of Lockerbie. On the 25th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on British soil, this is the story.
The De Havilland Comet was the world's first passenger jet airliner. But less than two years into service, two aircraft blew up in mid-air, killing all aboard. PM Winston Churchill ordered an assemblage of experts to discover what went wrong - in the process, inventing many of the air crash investigation techniques still used today.
An exhilarating documentary film that celebrates the unsung hero of aviation - the local airport - by tracing the life, history, and struggles of an airport icon: Southern California's Van Nuys Airport. Featuring thrilling aerial photography and a sweeping original score, the film dispels common misconceptions and opposes criticism of General Aviation airports.
A film about the education of young aviators, which uses the natural interest of the youth in aviation and leads them through modeling circles and motorless flying to flying powered planes.
Documentary about icelandic aviators.
It wasn't until 1993 that American women were officially allowed to fly combat aircraft. Learn about the struggles, the accomplishments, and contributions of women pilots of the past, present, and future.
Wings Over Vietnam
The X-15 was the last in a line of manned rocket-powered research airplanes built during the 1950s to explore ever-faster and higher flight regimes. Nineteen years before Space Shuttle, the X-15 showed it was possible to fly into, and out of, space. Launched from the wing of a modified B-52 bomber, the ship rocketed higher and faster than any manned aircraft of the time. There had never been anything like the X-15; it had a million-horsepower engine and could fly twice as fast as a rifle bullet. In the joint X-15 hypersonic research program that NASA conducted with the Air Force, the Navy, and North American Aviation the aircraft flew over a period of nearly 10 years and set unofficial speed and altitude records, in a program to investigate all aspects of piloted hypersonic flight. Information gained from the highly successful X-15 program contributed to the development of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo piloted spaceflight programs as well as the Space Shuttle program.
Over the course of 199 flights, the X-15 rocket plane pushed the boundaries of aerospace with trips out to mach 6.7 and altitudes of over 350,000 feet. The extraordinary record of the X-15 has been unmatched in flight test, and remains a fascinating story of pushing experience to the edge of space.
This early, influential propaganda film blends documentary and studio footage to show the valiant efforts of the Royal Air Force to defend the British people against the Nazis.