In order to boost circulation of his newspaper, Lord Rawnsley announces an air race and offers £10,000 to the first person who can fly across the English Channel. But one of the participants, Percy, plots to sabotage his competitor's planes. Will Percy triumph?

This early docudrama uses dramatic reenactment, working models of early flying machines, and archival footage to trace man's attempts to fly from ancient times through the 1930s.

For over 80 years, Merle Hayden has crusaded to recruit members to the utopian movement Lawsonomy. Founded by aircraft pioneer Alfred Lawson, Lawsonomy advocates for economic reform and clean, communal living that transforms followers into a "New Species" that will benefit the human race either in this life or the next. Merle joined Lawson as a teenager and never looked back. His high school sweetheart Betty Kasch, however, is tired of Lawson coming between them. Reunited after over 60 years apart, non-believer Betty wants Merle to join her in Florida. Merle's commitment to preserving Lawson's legacy, artifacts currently rotting in a barn alongside a Wisconsin highway, has Betty worried Merle may leave her for Lawson once again.

NOVA accompanies famed test pilot Darryl Greenamyer and his intrepid crew on a perilous mission to repair and re-fly a B-29 bomber stranded on the Greenland icecap since 1947. In the face of incredible hardships, the team struggles to bring the old warbird back to life.

The Great Planes looks at some of the most important aircraft collections in the world – from the Shuttleworth Collection and its antique aeroplanes to the USAF Museum in Dayton Ohio and the mighty XB 70 Valkyrie. More than thirty aircraft types are featured; from great piston engined bombers like the Wellington and Halifax to obscure research aircraft like the Bristol 188, the North American X-15 and the Fairey Delta II. Also a look inside the hangar at Paine Field Seattle and the replica Messerschmitt 262s now flying in both the USA and Germany, filmed against the snow capped mountains of Washington State

The wars of 1912-1913 pass as a distant echo in Dozhden, a small village in the Rhodopes. Overwhelmed by a dream to fly, the young shepherd Sirachko, the son of a skilled craftsman, set about building an aircraft.