The A350: Star of the Skies

Explore the 1928 collapse of the St. Francis Dam, the second deadliest disaster in California history. A colossal engineering and human failure, the dam was built by William Mulholland, a self-taught engineer who ensured the growth of Los Angeles by bringing the city water via aqueduct. The catastrophe killed more than 400 people and destroyed millions of dollars of property.

Travel into the world of aviation and explore the dreams of flight with the Smithsonian as they step into the unknown.

Go higher, faster and farther with the Smithsonian as they explore the dreams of flight.

Under the pretext of fighting terrorism or crime, the major powers have embarked on a dangerous race for surveillance technologies. Facial recognition cameras, emotion detectors, citizen rating systems, autonomous drones… A security obsession that in some countries is giving rise to a new form of political regime: numerical totalitarianism. Orwell's nightmare.

Heralded as a palace among minor and major league baseball stadiums, Silver Stadium set a standard of excellence from opening day. From May 1929 through the 1990s Silver Stadium served as home to Rochester's historic baseball team, The Rochester Red Wings, as well as many other sporting teams. When not being used as a baseball stadium, the space served as center stage for a variety of traveling acts. Hear from the people closest to the history of this magnificent facility as they take you on a journey through The Memories of Silver.

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.

Born of the cold war, and eclipsed by success in rocketry, the XB-70 Valkyrie was conceived as a Mach 3 high-altitude bomber and became a valuable high-speed research aircraft. Although only two were produced, and one was destroyed in an accident, the Valkyrie built an impressive databank of high-speed flight invaluable to aviation development. This DVD, with nearly 4 hours of rare footage of the XB-70, newly transferred on modern telecines, brings you the flight test program of the XB-70 as never before. Contains rare progress reports, footage from rollout, extensive footage of test flights, and footage from the A/V-2 accident. All footage is color. Some footage is silent.

Take a technological thrill ride The Magic of Flight takes you on a technological thrill ride faster, higher and wider than modern science or even your imagination! Relive the first flight of the Wright Brothers, then soar with the Blue Angels as they defy the laws of gravity. Narrated by Tom Selleck.

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.

A celebration of those still flying the last remaining Grumman Albatross, a seaplane from a long-lost era of adventure and romance.

German-made documentary about Claude Dornier, the aeronautical engineer and founder of Dornier GmbH which built warplanes for Germany in both world wars. Dornier's descendants are interviewed.

Two modern Red Arrows pilots take on the challenges faced by World War I pilots by performing photo reconnaissance, artillery ranging, and bombing missions in period aircraft - culminating in a classic dogfight.

The film, "No Need for Parking - An African Rock Adventure", tells the story of Mike Blyth, Marianne Schwankhart and James Pitman's epic 2006 flying and rock climbing trip around Southern Africa. This charming, anarchic film is simultaneously tension-filled, beautiful and inspirational. No-one can fail to be moved by the trials which the three adventurers face while negotiating the subcontinent's grandest and most dramatic scenery. The idea giving rise to the film is to draw on Mike's legendary flying skills to transport Marianne and James to three of Southern Africa's wildest and most remote rock walls, which they will then climb, while documenting the proceedings on camera. Events, however, seldom turn out exactly as expected. The resulting film, full of the warmth of Africa, is an object lesson in intrepid friendship and contemporary free-spiritedness, set to a kwela soundtrack.

Join self confessed petrol-head Guy Martin as he learns about the alternative to the internal combustion engine, Electric. In this TV special, Guy learns about the advantages of electric transport and the different varieties that exist from bicycles, cars and vans up to buses. Guy also learns some of the disadvantages from range anxiety and with the help of the Leicestershire Fire Brigade, how to deal with a fire. The ultimate aim is to produce a record breaking electrified retro road car that is suitable for the Drag strip, with Guy behind the steering wheel.

The documentary, Bob Gurr: Turning Dreams into Reality, tells the story of one of Walt Disney's earliest 1954 Imagineering Legends, Bob Gurr. His career spanning 45 years creating 250 projects with Disney and beyond will be explored. From Disneyland to Las Vegas, Olympic spectaculars to rock star shows, Bob's creations included Monorails, Abraham Lincoln mechanical animation, Pirate Battle Shows, even massive animated figures of King Kong and Godzilla. Viewers will learn much about how these attractions were created from those who were there sharing these creations. Eight theme park creators who worked with Bob over these years will describe the unique ways in which he created a vast variety of attractions. The cast includes Disney Ambassador to the World Marty Sklar, Imagineering VP Craig Russell, Imagineer Chris Crump, and many others.

An eccentric history buff lives in a cabin in the woods but spends most of his time flying his biplane.

A documentary covering the history of TWA, from its origins to its ultimate sale to American Airlines.

Die Concorde - Absturz einer Legende

Documentary about the history of the Belgium-Congo route, made on the occasion of the thousandth flight.