Summary

In this fascinating documentary we follow the meteoric career of the aircraft. What started as a picket fence that could barely move one man a hundred meters through the air, grew within a century into a slender machine that spans the entire earth at supersonic speeds. This documentary shows beautifully filmed color images of restored aircraft from different periods. The wonder of flying is captured in recordings made with mini cameras on board, in interviews with pilots and in top material from aviation archives. The development of engines, from rotary engines to turbofans, is discussed, as well as the aerodynamics that took flying humans further and higher until the first steps were taken on the moon in 1969. Two world wars accelerated the development of the aircraft into a weapon with which complete battles were decided.