The thrilling, sometimes harrowing, true story of the crazy courage of the earliest pilots who took combat to the skies in the Great War. Based on letters, diaries, and historical documents of the time.
2026 is the year of celebrating America's 250th birthday. This program highlights an important part of that 250-year history: the role of pilots in The Great War. These "intrepid birdmen of the sky" transformed aerial technology and had a hand in changing the course of world history. Their story begins with the jaunty bravado they and their home countries felt at the beginning of World War I, a conflict that many believed would be over in a matter of months, but instead slogged on for four years. The story journeys through the grim reality of the dark forces and long odds these pilots faced in their flimsy paper kites, and ends with a salute to the courage and dedication of those who rode the wings of new technology into the 20th century.
