From Today I Found Out.

If you liked this video, check out our sister channel Higher Learning: https://www.youtube.com/@HigherLearningFlight

The world of aviation abounds with thousands of unique aircraft designs, from tiny ultralights to giant military transports. Yet no matter how advanced or outlandish these designs get, nearly all fall into one of only two basic categories: fixed wing or rotary wing. But the history of aviation, like that of all technologies, is riddled with false starts and dead ends, and once upon a time the landscape of aircraft design was considerably more diverse. For example, well into the 20th Century many inventors believed that flapping-wing ornithopters were a viable means of human flight, while in the 1920s it seemed like giant gas-filled airships were the future of commercial aviation, offering a more comfortable and luxurious experience than airliners of the time. By the end of the 1930s, a series of high-profile disasters including the crash of the British R101 and German Hindenburg (which by the way despite the plummeting firey ball, over half the passengers actually survived that one), this all brought the age of the giant airship to an abrupt close, ceding the future of flight to the airplane and eventually the helicopter. But largely forgotten among aviation’s many false starts is a bizarre effort to achieve manned flight using giant powered kites. And the unlikely figure behind this eccentric quest was none other than legendary inventor Alexander Graham Bell…

Author: Gilles Messier
Host: Daven Hiskey
Producer: Daven Hiskey