NOVA presents the definitive documentary on the invention of the airplane. While many shows have retold the Wright brothers’ personal story, no program has properly explored the astonishing inventiveness that they applied to the problem of powered flight. NOVA reveals the popular image of the Wrights as amateur bicycle mechanics who tinkered their way into the sky to be a myth. The program features exhilarating footage of flights by exclusively commissioned replicas that use the same original materials and the only existing Wright engine for the frail craft that first propelled humans toward the clouds.