Horizon
Season 40 Episode 18 - Percy Pilcher's Flying Machine
Could an unknown Englishman have been the first person ever to fly? To mark the hundredth anniversary of the Wright brothers inaugural flight, Horizon tells the remarkable story of Percy Pilcher. He could have been the most famous aviator of them all. Four years before the Wright brothers, he had constructed his own aeroplane. But on the day it was due to take off for the very first time, something so terrible happened that he was denied the chance of ever flying it. So Horizon has rebuilt his long lost flying machine to see if Percy Pilcher, the British amateur, could have claimed the glory and been the first person ever to fly. This film mixes dramatic reconstruction with fabulous contemporary scenes and gripping science. With a specially assembled team of historians, aviation experts and our own test pilot, Horizon painstakingly rebuilds Pilcher's flying machine and puts it to the test. The results will leave you cheering.
Episodes in Season 40
The Mystery Of Easter Island
60 min
Living Nightmare
60 min
Averting Armageddon
60 min
Dirty Bomb
60 min
Sexual Chemistry (Update)
60 min
The Day We Learned To Think
60 min
Trial and Error
60 min
Earthquake Storms
60 min
Life On Mars (Update)
60 min
The Secret Life Of Caves
60 min
God On The Brain
60 min
Flight 587
60 min
SARS: The True Story
60 min
The Big Chill
60 min
The Bible Code
60 min
Last Flight of the Columbia
60 min
The Hunt for an AIDS Vaccine
60 min
Percy Pilcher's Flying Machine
60 min
Time Trip
60 min
