Original subtitles

No invention has changed the world.

Quite like the airplane.

The story of its creation

is one of intense rivalry.

Between two brothers named right

people won't believe we can fly on this

show them.

Daredevil call Glenn curtiss

are the best plane when who was brave enough to take them on we fly again tomorrow.

A bitter competition.

It's a ploy.

Fueled by endanger.

Marked with tragedy.

Would forever change the way.

You see.

One.

Thirty two year old wilbur Wright and his younger brother Orville lead quiet lives.

Spending their days repairing

in designing bicycles.

Immigrant.

Two brothers have always had inventive minds.

Between the two brothers.

It was a terrific team

because wilbur had really remarkable insights

and Orville could build almost any.

So you have one party coming up with an idea

and the other one bringing into fruition.

For wilbur.

Bicycles are not enough.

Geniuses in some sense are ordinary people.

They look ordinary

they have the ordinary kinds of problems everyone has

but what separates them

is that they have a vision.

Tremendously impossible goal.

Something that is unattainable

but they said it themselves

that's what went into

I'm going to do the impossible.

What do you see.

Dunno.

Balance.

While some innovators of already managed to lived in aircraft from the ground.

No one has been able to control it.

Yet.

Wilbur saw that birds.

Shifted their wingtips in-flight in order to bank

the what will be recognized and no one else did

was that an aircraft in order to become stable

had to be inherently unstable.

It was the single most significant breakthrough that allowed control powered flight.

Wilbur's theory is simple.

If he can twist and aircrafts wings and flight.

It'll be able to maintain control.

It will come to be known.

As wing warping.

Everybody likes is a science did this.

Sciences people people use the process of science make an observation.

Come up with hypothesis of why it happens.

Then try it

and compared to what you thought was going

to happen that process has changed the world.

Experiment with a kite is one thing.

But to get a person in the air.

Will have to put his life on the line.

Was design has to be flawless.

For the next three years

wilbur and Orville turned their attention to building full sized gliders.

Wings as a key.

Wilbert recognized that you needed to fly in wind

is a no bird sores in a calm

and they were looking for someplace where

it was Sandy so if you.

Landed you wouldn't get killed.

Wilbur survived the crash.

But if the Wright brothers are going to be first unmanned flight.

They'll have to rethink their design

and fast.

After all.

The race to be first in the air is just eating up.

Five hundred miles away.

Alright William your storms of threaded side.

Of the fight another innovative mind is at work.

Testing the limits of the recently introduced internal combustion engine.

Metal warps.

A gregarious motorcycle designer.

Named Glenn curtiss.

Curtis was like the rights he had a bicycle shop.

He had a lie lot of experience with motors and became.

Pretty much with

question when of the most talented motor designers working in america at that time.

Since nineteen o one.

Curtis has made a name for himself.

Building motorcycles fitted with his powerful engines.

The young thrill seekers career.

Is about to change forever.

After spending nearly one thousand dollars.

The Wright brothers returned to the beach to test their new design.

Wright flyer.

Gain more control

they've not only enhance their rudder system.

Orville and wilbur have installed a four cylinder twelve horsepower engine.

On December seventeenth ninety no three.

Wright brothers do the impossible.

To achieve the first controlled empowered

human flight.

In the fourth trial of the.

Wilbur travels a record breaking eight hundred and fifty two feet.

And is airborne for fifty nine seconds.

Wright brothers were not the first one to build gliders

they were the first ones to put it all together.

You need a motor

and a control system.

So you don't crash and kill yourself.

That's what the Wright brothers did.

They put it all together.

Wright brothers leave kitty hawk having made history.

Liver.

Why not let the world now.

If this gets out.

Someone will snap it up.

Like.

Rockefeller reticent to China.

S.

We can be him.

If we play our cards right.

Just wait until we have the pattern.

Wright brothers filed a patent.

That would give them the monopoly

not only on wing warping but anything that altered

the margins of the wings and fly.

It was xiv bill gates got a patent

on any software for personal computers

you couldn't do that today but you could do that.

As the rights wait on their patent.

Word of their successful flight begins to spread.

And it isn't long before some of the country's most ambitious men.

Try to get in the Wright brothers success.

Glenn curtiss and the writes a letter.

Offering to enhance their aircraft.

By supplying them with his state of vr engines.

Less than a week after Curtis makes his offer.

The rights patent is approved.

Owning the rights to powered flight.

Wilbur and Orville can now legally prevent any

future competitors from building airplanes.

Despite the need for a solid engine.

They turned down Curtis is offered.

And in doing so.

Create their biggest rival to date.

In December nineteen one three.

After risking life and limb.

Orville Wright executes the first controlled

powered human flight.

Securing the Wright brothers place.

In aeronautical history.

And while they hold a patent for their design.

Their success is only breeding competition.

Locked in place by given that a spin.

Amethyst lever.

Away from yourself.

Including daredevil and motor engineer

Glenn curtiss.

Curtis has just been recruited to a group of engineers and innovators.

Fronted by world renowned inventor.

Alexander Graham bell.

Looking to construct their own set of blueprints for an aircraft.

And they're convinced that Curtis is injured.

Is the key to powered flight.

But with the rights patent in place.

They need to come up with a completely different design.

Instead of wing warping.

Curtis focuses on a different method of stabilization.

Ailerons.

Fringe for little wing.

And aileron is a hinged flap.

Attached to the wing of an airplane.

By moving the flaps up and down.

The airplane can maintain stability.

Technology still in use today.

Curtis and his team building an airplane fitted with ailerons.

And one of his powerful forty horsepower engines.

They call it.

The junebug.

And they choose their most fearless designer to fly at.

Propeller is going to be hollow tomorrow will be twice as fast.

Now all they need

is the chance to show the world that their design

is better than the rights.

And or opportunity comes

the then in aviation contest is announced.

Scientific American contest was probably going to be the first time.

When.

People who were interested in aviation.

Were all gathered.

To see an airplane fly.

Wilbur and Orville are invited to join the competition

to prove Curtis wrong.

It's a ploy.

Just a cheap stunt and try to get us to fly for the cameras.

People are calling us liars.

Fakes.

I don't care.

Wright brothers.

Were very secret

they thought everybody was infringing their patent

and they weren't going to participate in anything with bunch of patterned infringers.

But the rights turned down the invitation.

Leading Curtis to fly.

Without any opposition.

With the contest only one day away.

Glenn curtiss takes June bug

up for one final test run.

That scout.

On the day before Glenn curtiss is set to make his first public flight

the newly designed junebug airplane.

Crashes to the ground.

Remarkably Curtis escapes with only a few scratches.

Do you all right.

That the all around too tight now open the throttle too fast

okay we'll get back to the shop think.

Sir.

If against ma.

Glenn.

We fly again tomorrow.

A lot of the people on the Curtis team were ready to

delay

the true to form.

Curtis was kind of undaunted by it.

With his reputation on the line.

Curtis pushes his team to their breaking point.

To repair the damaged airplane in time for the exhibition.

In order to

do something brand new and succeed spectacularly.

That usually comes with.

Tremendous amount of risk.

To succeed spectacularly.

You need to be willing to fail spectacularly.

By morning the.

Is repaired.

And ready for its debut.

Glenn curtiss

is about to take the biggest risk of his career.

Attempting a public flight.

In a plane to crash landed just one day earlier.

Curtains flies.

For nearly of mile.

It's hard to imagine how dramatic that really must

have been for people it was really an amazing spectacle

people are literally crying people were screaming

it opened up a whole new horizon.

In a way because this thing that you thought was impossible

was now happening in front of your eyes.

News of Curtis is nearly two minute flight.

Spreads like wildfire.

In one day Curtis does more to promote aviation.

In the Wright brothers ever have.

With his triumph

mr Curtis canal lay claim to the title first and flight.

Fly.

They steal from us.

Willpower.

People won't believe we can fly list was show them.

Now after being upstaged by Glenn curtiss in the field they pioneered.

Wright brothers come out with guns blazing.

Mission.

Twenty five thousand dollar contract.

With one of the most sought after customers in aviation.

UK s army.

Pressure must have been man son or a go at that time

so much is riding on it

the idea of proving this of the u s government wasn't just a big deal.

We're banking almost everything.

Over the course of one week.

Mobile completes a series of successful demonstrations.

And on September ninth.

Nineteen await.

Arrival flies for sixty two straight minutes.

Crushing the record for sustained flight.

And to boots their biggest rival Glenn curtiss.

Witnesses at all.

Isn't the same engine as four years ago.

That motorbikes go faster.

Curtis is invited to the event by his good friend.

Lieutenant Tom self ridge.

Time self ridge was the highest ranking military person

with deep knowledge of the emerging field of aviation.

He was the perfect person for the military to have at this demonstration

to check out

whether this can be available thing for the military.

For Orville the only way to win the contract

is to win over lieutenant self ridge.

With twelve successful test flights behind him.

Orville is joined by self ridge for the first official demonstration.

Pretty.

Showcase for the u s military.

Ends in disaster.

Orville barely survives.

But lieutenant Tom self ridge is killed.

Becoming the first person to ever die in an airplane crash.

Flight went up and evidently a propeller was cracked

and Orville tried his best and try to write the plane in the plane crashed and

Orville a broken femur and broke ribs

and was in pain the rest of his life and salvage died.

He was a very publicly tragic episode.

For Glenn curtiss.

The competition against the Wright brothers.

Turns personal.

Wright brothers attempt to secure a coveted military contract.

Ins and catastrophe.

Army lieutenant Tom self ridges dead.

Tragedy makes headlines across the country.

Oval is sidelined for months recovering from his injuries but he's determined

to not let the accident tarnish the their name.

Big festival.

New York.

Show us a model a.

Nineteen o nine there was a huge festival in new York

and one of the big deals was going to be

a flying extinguish.

Wilbur flu or up and down the Hudson

to where George Washington bridge is now

and back.

This was the most important public flight.

In front of civilians in america up until then.

Ninety percent of the people who are there had never seen.

An airplane before.

You're talking about a group of spectators.

Watching something that they thought was impossible.

Was an enormous day for wilbur.

One of the many in attendance.

Is Glenn curtiss.

You take that panel of

patch it up.

Ticket once tickets twice to get three times okay.

Get to work.

Although wilbur.

Quite a flight.

Thank you mr Curtis.

Know started in a bike shop.

Only we have a lot more in common than you think.

Our airplanes do.

We both know where the neutralize.

Where's that.

Cooperation.

We could make a fortune.

Good luck.

Tom self ridge.

Best friend of mine could ask.

Terrible judge of vengeance.

Best plane when.

Mp battle for dominance of the skies.

Takes an unexpected turn.

It is our view.

That morally the world owes it's almost universally use.

Of our wings stabilization system.

Entirely to us.

Wright brothers have filed a lawsuit against Glenn curtiss.

Claiming that any plane that Curtis's built.

Owes its design.

Therefore a hefty royalty

to them.

The rights patents.

Stifled American aviation

because it took the right side of the game.

And it made Curtis spend an inordinate amount of time.

Defending the suit.

Curtis and the Wright brothers were the three

most talented people in American aviation

and they to some a great extent.

Were involved in legal issues

and not aviation issues.

Just one Curtis's on the verge of losing it all.

Is visited by a man who could change everything.

Henry Ford.

Wright brothers of luck Glenn curtiss in a brutal patents suit.

Bringing their rival towards the brink of bankruptcy.

One fateful afternoon.

Everything changes.

Curtis's paid a visit by the legendary carmaker in re forward.

Food has spent eight years fighting his own legal battles.

Against a man who claim to own the patent on the automobile.

A suit that brought the car industry to a grinding halt.

I.

Put forward emerged victorious.

And as one of the most successful car manufacturers in the country.

I'd like to support your patent claims.

Vigorously.

Why.

Want to make airplanes.

I want to compete against the Wright brothers.

Instead of waiting on our lawyers.

You want me to.

Fight your battles for you.

My legal team is at your disposal.

Henry Ford offers Curtis a strategy to get around the rights lawsuit.

When you sue.

You are suing for infringement from a specific aspect of

the other person's product.

So you make small alterations to your product

and then you produce that.

And it makes them have to see you all over again.

Will you use

yeah you'll probably lose but you can keep the suit going in perpetuity.

Ford is given Curtis a way to use the patent suits to his advantage.

By constantly altering his plans.

Curtis.

Revisits earlier designs that propelled the field of aviation for.

Pioneers the naval sea plane.

And simulates aerial bombing raids.

Changing military aviation forever.

Here's a reason why he remember when Curtis.

He's the first one to fly from one city to another is the

first one to be involved in having a airplane take off of.

Of of what we now call an aircraft carrier.

Me see literally dozens of key innovations to the

aircraft that we still have an air planes today.

With each milestone Curtis makes.

The rights become consumed and legal battles.

Spending a fortune.

And worse.

Less time making innovations of their own.

Wilbur refused to go in the workshop

a patent case had involved him in a way that

was not pleasing for him.

And he wished he had spent more time innovative.

But remember when you're

protecting is something you developed

it kind of works against you trying to create something new

because that's a tacit admission that your old invention.

Wasn't all that now.

Obsession to crush Glenn curtiss.

Takes a heavy toll on wilbur self.

In April nineteen twelve.

He contracts typhoid fever.

And at the age of forty five.

Wilbur rise.

Is dead.

Wilbur had been pursuing the patterns.

Almost nonstop for two years.

And.

Unfortunately for the Wright brothers

it cost them their business and

actually probably did cost wilbur his life.

I when wilbur died.

Something went out of all.

Wilbert he was not only the brilliant scientist

he also had to drive.

Orville definitely withdrew into himself.

For Orville.

One man is responsible for his brother's death.

Glenn curtiss.

Wilbur rights early death devastates awful.

He's lost his business partner

and brother.

Just when it appears that things can grow any darker.

Fate hands Orville Wright.

The miracle he has been waiting for.

On January thirteenth nineteen fourteen.

UK s court of appeals.

Announces a landmark ruling.

Wright brothers are declared.

Pioneers.

In the practical art of flying.

Now for every plane made in america.

Orville will be able to charge his competitors

a twenty percent royalty.

But there's one man he refuses to.

Is designed to.

The man he blames for driving his brother to an early grave.

Glenn curtiss.

Case of bankers courtesy was bankrupted by the rights

twice

he just make

all sorts of amazing innovations his airplanes had

many features that we still have on airplanes today.

But he couldn't market them because of the Wright brothers strong monopoly right.

Yeah just as Curtis hit rock bottom.

In July of nineteen fourteen.

World war one a rubs.

It is the biggest military conflict the world has ever seen.

And for the first time in history

the war won't just be fought on the ground.

It will be fought in the skies.

Between the years of nineteen fourteen and nineteen eighteen.

Germany bills nearly fifty thousand airplanes.

But because of the Wright brothers patent.

The aviation industry in the united states has come to a standstill.

And is no match for the German advancements.

The rights the after the original fly are created a series of flyers

model a the model the the model see.

They're all essentially the same airplane with very very minimal

changes.

They could build good airplanes don't misunderstand.

What the rights technology was just absolutely.

When the u s into the war in nineteen seventeen

the government has no choice but to intervene.

And resolve the patent dispute once and for all.

The war effort demands sacrifice.

Each of your firms will get one percent royalty

on all aeroplanes built in the united states.

Government forces the right company to share it's patents with other manufacturers.

Including Glenn curtiss.

Curtis is now free to build and sell his airplanes.

And reap the financial reward.

Is years of experimenting and innovation pay off.

He sells an astounding seven thousand of his newly designed Jenny fighters.

For the victorious war effort.

Literally overnight

Glenn curtiss as so many orders that he becomes the largest

airplane manufacturer america.

After the war Curtis continues to prosper.

And by nineteen twenty.

Is made thirty two million dollars

the equivalent of over three hundred million today.

Rights may have invented the airplane.

But Glenn curtiss as turned it into an industry.

But for Orville Wright.

His career as an aviator.

Is over.

Of all retires from the aviation business.

And is left to watch the advancement of the airplane

from the sidelines.

Competition between the rights and Curtis.

Was a battle between two titans.

To.

Achieve something.

That had never been issued by for.

Perhaps the greatest irony.

Is that

the rage company long after Orville was gone.

And the Curtis company long after Curtis was gone.

Merged.

And the new company was called Curtis right.

And Curtis right is still with us today it is a huge company

manufacturing aviation.

Equipment or.