First Flights with Neil Armstrong - Season 3

Previous Season

Episodes

Whirling Wings: Evolution of the Rotorhead

Season 3Episode 124 min

Whirling Wings: Evolution of the Rotorhead

From Cierva's breakthrough in autogyro design, to the state-of-the-art BK-117, the heart of the helicopter story has been the rotorhead. Early helicopters were complex, dangerous flying machines, prone to failure. For the men and women who took the controls, concentration and daring were essential.

Water Birds: Floatplanes and Flying Boats

Season 3Episode 224 min

Water Birds: Floatplanes and Flying Boats

By the 1930s, flying boats – massive, airborne ocean liners – opened up global routes for passenger service, while the floatplanes entering the Schneider Trophy races were the fastest, most innovative flying machines in existence.

Jump to the Sky: Jet VTOL

Season 3Episode 324 min

Jump to the Sky: Jet VTOL

Conventional airplanes need large runways for takeoff and landing, a limitation that concerned defense planners. As turbine engines became lighter, a new type of aircraft became possible — one that could take off and land vertically, yet fly with the speed of jets.

Tail First Flying: the Canard

Season 3Episode 424 min

Tail First Flying: the Canard

When the small tail surface wings which enable an airplane to go up or down are moved to the front, they are called canards. It is a technology as old as manned flight — the Wrights used canards on their early airplanes. Canards were rarely used after the first World War until computer technology provided the control needed to make the technology feasible.

First Around The World

Season 3Episode 524 min

First Around The World

Many times in aviation history the ultimate test of aircraft and pilot was to fly around the world. Competition and showmanship always played a part, but in the end it was the mental and physical endurance of the men and women who climbed into the cockpit that made success possible.

Season 3Episode 624 min

Flying Blind

In the early days of flying, instrumentation was crude. A weighted silk stocking tied to a strut could help the pilot gauge his airspeed. Wartime challenged pilots to learn the techniques of blind flying. Today, pilots use orbiting satellites to pinpoint their position, and complex autopilots enable an aircraft to fly itself.

Season 3Episode 724 min

Flying Wings

In their quest for flight efficiency, some designers thought the ideal shape would be just a wing, nothing else, flying through the air. Though successful development of flying wings has often proved illusive, Northrop's designs proved feasibility, and the B-2 Stealth Bomber brought the configuration into production.

Flight Control: Wing Warping to Fly-by-Wire

Season 3Episode 824 min

Flight Control: Wing Warping to Fly-by-Wire

Two years after the first manned flight, the Wrights mastered control sufficiently to fly the first circle – a major aviation advance that went almost unnoticed. By World War II, the first hydraulically boosted controls were invented, enabling pilots to fly aircraft weighing more than 100,000 pounds without the muscles of a co pilot. Once digital signals succeeded in maneuvering spacecraft, computerized fly-by-wire technology for aircraft was not far behind.

Flash Of Glory: Aerial Combat Enters The Jet Age

Season 3Episode 924 min

Flash Of Glory: Aerial Combat Enters The Jet Age

During WWII, the Germans introduced the Messerschmitt 262, and the British the Gloster Meteor. With these first operational jet fighters, a new era in aerial combat had begun. As jet met jet in the skies over Korea, the MiG-15 proved Russia to be a major power in jet aircraft development.

Flying the Mail

Season 3Episode 1024 min

Flying the Mail

Airmail pioneers demonstrated to a public already infatuated with flying, that airplanes had a bright commercial future. They led the way for the great commercial ventures that would one day span the globe. The variety of aircraft was dazzling, but conditions were harsh and pilots had to be hardy and brave to risk flying the mail.

Backyard Fliers: An Airplane In Every Garage

Season 3Episode 1124 min

Backyard Fliers: An Airplane In Every Garage

In the 1920s when just about anyone could afford a car, interest grew in a safe, inexpensive airplane that anyone could fly. Convenience went a step further in roadable aircraft – vehicles that could travel the highways, then convert to an airplane for the rest of the journey. The airplane has never attained the practicality of the automobile for family travel, but modern aviation offers exciting opportunities for the amateur flyer.

First In Speed: Air Racing

Season 3Episode 1224 min

First In Speed: Air Racing

From the early years of flight until the late 1930s, air racing was the single most important testing ground for engineering advancements. It provided a breathtaking combination of daredevil risk taking and technological innovation.

Propellers: Wings With A Twist

Season 3Episode 1324 min

Propellers: Wings With A Twist

The Wright brothers realized that a propeller was a rotating wing – giving it a twist made it practical. By the mid 1930s, variable pitch and NACA research revolutionized propeller design. With the coming of the jet age, propellers fell out of favor for large aircraft. But designers soon realized that a fast turboprop with an advanced propeller could be more efficient than the best jetliners.

Recently Updated Shows

Recently updated shows that might be of your interest.

Wheel of Fortune

Running

Wheel of Fortune

Contestants guess hidden phrases by guessing letters one at a time. Contestants win money or prizes, as determined by a spin of the wheel, for each correct consonant they guess. But they have to pay to see what vowels are in a puzzle. The contestant that has amassed the most winnings at the end of a game goes on to play the bonus round, in which the player can win even more -- prizes frequently seen in the bonus round include automobiles, vacations and more cash.

Saturday Night Live

Running

Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live is an Emmy Award-winning late-night comedy showcase.

Since its inception in 1975, "SNL" has launched the careers of many of the brightest comedy performers of their generation. As The New York Times noted on the occasion of the show's Emmy-winning 25th Anniversary special in 1999, "in defiance of both time and show business convention, 'SNL' is still the most pervasive influence on the art of comedy in contemporary culture." At the close of the century, "Saturday Night Live" placed seventh on Entertainment Weekly's list of the Top 100 Entertainers of the past fifty years.

GenreComedy, Music

🍪 We use cookies to provide necessary website functionality and improve your experience. You can review our Cookies Policy to learn more. By using our website, you agree to these policies.