The Machines That Built America: 1x2

Plane Pioneers

In 1910, airplanes are a novelty, fragile wooden concoctions that float in the air–and crash. But that doesn’t stop two young dreamers with a passion for this newfangled machine from imagining a very different future: one in which planes carry millions of passengers across the country, even across the seas. To realize that vision and create a lucrative new market, William Boeing and Donald Douglas take on automobile titan Henry Ford, infamous Dutch aviation giant Anthony Fokker–and each other.