Original subtitles

(plane engines roaring)

‐ [Narrator] We take off in them every two seconds,

(reverent orchestral music)

part of a global business worth over $700 billion,

serving more than three and a half billion passengers

every single year.

‐ The ability to fly anywhere in the world

really makes us a global civilization.

‐ [Narrator] But one century ago,

the passenger airplane is a farfetched notion‐

‐ I want a small cabin, for passengers.

‐ [Narrator] With deadly implications.

‐ Now, not only did people come to see them fly,

they also came to see 'em crash.

‐ [Narrator] In the 1920s and '30s,

four men race to make passenger travel a reality:

aviation maverick Bill Boeing,

master engineer Donald Douglas,

enemy warplane builder Anthony Fokker,

and a living legend out to conquer yet another industry.

‐ Henry Ford was an all‐in guy.

‐ What do you want for the whole company?

‐ [Narrator] Fortunes will be won‐

‐ She was born to fly.

(plane propellers whirring)

‐ [Narrator] And lost.

‐ You're a cheat and you're a thief!

But‐ (phone receiver thudding)

‐ [Narrator] Only one will emerge victorious.

This is "Plane Pioneers."

(plane engines roaring)

(intense dramatic music)

(soft electronic music)

‐ [Narrator] It's 1910, and Americans are living in an age

of transportation wonders

few could've imagined decades earlier.

‐ If you wanted to get from place to place

in the United States,

you would have thought you had died and gone to heaven

compared to your grandparents.

‐ Once you have the automobile, you're in charge.

You can go, well, frankly, wherever there's a road.

‐ [Narrator] There's another transportation technology

still in its infancy.

But nearly a decade after Orville and Wilbur Wright

took their first flight,

progress on the revolutionary airplane is painfully slow.

‐ There are early planes,

but they look more like a kid's science experiment.

They're made out of wood and wire,

and they're really unsafe at the time.

‐ The history of aviation is really a life‐and‐death story.

If you get something wrong

in the design of your airplane, people die.

Often, the inventors themselves were the ones who died.

‐ [Narrator] Airplanes seldom carry passengers.

And if they do, it's a terrifying experience.

‐ You're exposed.

You're not really strapped down very well.

You don't have a parachute.

So, if something goes wrong, you are going to die.

‐ [Narrator] But that doesn't stop some Americans

from dreaming of what could be.

(pensive electronic music)

In January 1910,

250,000 attend America's first major airshow,

the Los Angeles International Air Meet.

‐ Well, in 1910, airplanes are a novelty,

something very strange, something very fearsome,

as well as something quite exciting.

‐ And it seemed like such a miracle,

these machines just taking off and floating in the air.

‐ [Narrator] In the crowd is a wealthy 28‐year‐old visionary

from Seattle who's traveled 1,100 miles to be here.

He's never seen an airplane fly in person,

but he's obsessed with the new invention.

‐ Excuse me.

Excuse me, I'd like to inquire

about taking a ride in your airplane.

‐ And you are?

‐ Boeing.

Bill Boeing.

‐ One of the things to know about Bill Boeing

is that he's a man of science.

This is a must‐see event for him.

‐ [Narrator] A few years earlier,

Boeing shocked his wealthy family

when he dropped out of college, moved to Washington State,

and launched a timber business.

‐ Bill Boeing was a well‐known figure in Seattle

and actually one of the richest people

in the state of Washington,

but no one else really knew who he was.

He was a bit of a nobody.

‐ [Pilot] Mr. Hearst!

You ready for your ride? ‐ Absolutely!

‐ Right this way. ‐ All right.

‐ [Narrator] After trying for three days to get a ride,

Boeing goes home disappointed.

But that frustration will light a fire.

(plane engines roaring)

One day, the Boeing name will by synonymous

with passenger aircraft,

including the most legendary of all, the 747.

The company will be worth nearly a quarter‐trillion dollars,

its factory the single largest building by volume

on the planet.

It all starts with a snub he'll never forget.

He gets his pilot's license and, in 1916,

forms his own airplane company.

‐ In those articles of incorporation,

he did note that he would build airplanes

to carry passengers, to carry freight.

It really does help

to understand what a visionary he was.

‐ Aviation wasn't really an industry.

It was more like an invention looking for a market.

(upbeat electronic music)

‐ [Narrator] By 1917, it has one:

not passengers, but world war.

When the US joins the conflict,

Boeing wins a $575,000 contract,

$11 million today, to build planes for the Navy.

His operation grows 20‐fold to 300 employees.

But the end of World War I brings it all crashing down.

‐ There's no contracts for his airplanes.

And so, then he's left with, "I just built all of these.

"I've got all this stuff, but now there's not a market.

"What am I gonna do?"

‐ We can't make payroll.

‐ (sighing) Again?

‐ [Narrator] Over the next two years,

Boeing will lose today's equivalent of $6 million

and he'll do anything to keep the doors open.

‐ So, they turned to making furniture.

They did bedroom sets, headboards, dressers.

‐ [Narrator] But it's not enough.

‐ Take it from my account.

‐ [Narrator] Boeing uses his own money

to keep the company afloat, but he's on borrowed time.

(soft hip‐hop music)

1,100 miles away, a 28‐year‐old aviation engineer

is desperate to open his own airplane design firm,

but the only office he can afford

is in the back of a barbershop.

His name is Donald Douglas.

‐ Donald Douglas is very deliberate in his approach.

He's very conservative.

He doesn't take many risks.

‐ The story goes that Donald Douglas

had the same meal every day.

It was chopped steak, an ice cream sundae, and coffee.

‐ [Narrator] An engineering savant,

Douglas graduated MIT's four‐year aeronautics program

in just two.

He designed planes for the military during the war,

but hated working for others.

‐ People would do strange things

to determine if their plane was structurally sound,

like maybe run over it with a tractor tire.

This bothered Donald Douglas.

‐ [Narrator] Right now, most people are terrified of flying.

But Douglas sees possibility.

To build enthusiasm, he publishes an article

touting the benefits of passenger travel

and gets to work on his new designs.

(knocking on door)

He's even convinced a few like‐minded engineers

to join his operation.

‐ Are you serious?

‐ What?

This is just temporary.

Listen...

This is a chance to build airplanes the way we want to.

The smart way!

‐ [Narrator] One day, Douglas will create

some of the most iconic aircraft in history

and a company worth $13.3 billion,

McDonnell Douglas.

But with no orders in sight,

now he's forced to moonlight on a potato farm.

Unless business picks up,

this could be Donald Douglas's permanent occupation.

Coming up, a world‐famous Dutch plane maker escapes Europe

and takes on an American titan‐

‐ Let's get ready for the competition.

‐ (laughing) It'll be a friendly one, I promise.

‐ [Narrator] As Boeing and Douglas fight

to keep their companies alive.

‐ But we're gonna give them something so good

they can't say no.

(light electronic music)

‐ [Narrator] Four years after World War I,

Bill Boeing's airplane company is in big trouble.

‐ [Bill] We need to try something different.

‐ [Engineer] Different? How?

‐ [Narrator] To stay in business, he needs a Hail Mary.

‐ I don't have to tell you, we need orders

or we're not gonna last much longer.

Here's what we're gonna do.

The DH.4 fighter plane,

we're gonna redesign it for the Army.

‐ But they didn't request that.

‐ No, I know. (laughing)

I know they didn't.

But we're gonna give them something so good

they can't say no.

‐ [Narrator] Boeing wants to try something revolutionary:

remake a wooden military plane using metal.

‐ Everybody is still utilizing wood, ash, and poplar

and all these different lightweight woods.

‐ Metal is much heavier,

so it's a problem in aircraft construction.

But as planes started going faster, they had to be stronger.

‐ [Narrator] It's a huge gamble.

‐ I think being a pioneer is all about just having the guts

to really invent the future

when the future isn't even obvious for anyone out there.

‐ [Narrator] And he's about to face competition

from a brand new player,

one of the most powerful men in America.

2,000 miles away,

Henry Ford is looking for new industries to dominate.

‐ In the 1920s, Henry Ford is riding high.

He's churning out Model Ts left and right,

1,000 of them a day.

He's the third‐largest employer in the United States.

‐ [Narrator] Ford believes conditions are right

for air travel, an idea planted by his 30‐year‐old son.

Edsel Ford has been an aviation fanatic since he was a teen,

when he and his father built a crude plane from spare parts.

‐ Henry Ford recognizes that a whole new economy

is gonna build up around the airplane

the same way that it did around the automobile.

‐ [Narrator] But there are obstacles,

starting with public perception.

(plane clattering)

‐ For the average person,

what the airplane is is it's a source of entertainment.

A barnstormer would come through town

and everybody would go out to see this person fly,

but they were more interested

to see if the person would crash.

(plane clattering)

‐ What's not exciting in a very dark way

about witnessing an airplane crash?

Now, a lotta times, sadly,

these gentlemen did perish in the crash.

(plane clattering)

But a lotta times, they were close enough to the ground

that they could at least pancake in and walk away.

You get to see the crash, but the hero lives!

That's what everybody wants in a movie.

‐ [Narrator] Henry Ford believes the public

will see a Ford plane as safe,

but he needs a design that can back that up.

‐ You know a plane builder named William Stout?

‐ Never heard of him.

‐ He wants us to invest.

Listen to this.

"For your $1,000, you will get one definite promise:

"You will never get your money back."

(both laughing)

‐ Now, that's a man we should meet.

Stout sells the Fords on a breakthrough design:

not part‐metal, but all‐metal with a new wonder material.

‐ Duralumin.

One‐third the weight of steel.

‐ Duralumin.

Basically, it stood for "durable aluminum."

‐ If we take this amount of aluminum

and we pair it with this particular type of metal,

we come up with something that's still very light,

but quite a bit stronger.

‐ Well, Mr. Stout, you have my $1,000.

What do you want for the whole company?

(William laughing)

‐ [Narrator] If Duralumin works, it could be a game‐changer.

(pensive music)

Meanwhile, Donald Douglas still dreams of passenger travel,

but needs military work to survive.

The Army is planning an around‐the‐world flight

and wants a plane that can fly

thousands of miles without refueling.

‐ These bombers have 100‐gallon capacity.

I want 600.

‐ How?

‐ We rip out the bomb bays.

Replace them with fuel tanks.

Fuel is king.

‐ [Narrator] Douglas's design, completed in just 45 days,

wins the contract.

Its 2,200‐mile range is 10 times

what an average plane can do.

He calls it the World Cruiser.

‐ This is one of the first advantages

and leaps in the technology that you will need

in order to have commercial air traffic

that goes across a country as large as the United States.

‐ I mean, that's just inspirational, right,

potentially executing on a flight around the world?

If we can do this under these circumstances,

imagine all the other things that are potentially possible.

‐ [Narrator] His tiny company

is now on the industry's radar,

as the mission becomes a national story.

But most believe his planes will never make it.

‐ He was competing in a very public arena.

The whole world would be watching this.

If something went wrong,

the blame wouldn't be on the US Army,

it would be on the company that built the aircraft.

‐ [Narrator] Six months later, on April 6th, 1924,

four World Cruisers set out from Washington State.

Douglas knows the stakes.

If his planes beat the odds, he'll be a hero.

If they fail, it means the end of his company

and his dream of passenger travel.

‐ Army's on the phone.

‐ This is Donald Douglas.

What?

Where?

Thanks.

Keep me posted.

One of the planes fell behind.

Two pilots are missing.

(gentle pop music)

(gentle pop music)

(dramatic music)

‐ [Narrator] Donald Douglas's World Cruiser airplanes

are attempting an around‐the‐world flight,

but one plane and its two‐man crew

have been missing for 10 days.

(phone ringing)

‐ Donald Douglas.

Yeah.

Oh no.

Okay.

Okay.

They crashed into a mountain.

They survived.

They made it to a local town.

Oh, we're lucky.

(Donald exhaling)

‐ [Narrator] The crew is rescued.

And on September 28th, 1924,

after 175 days and over 24,000 miles,

the remaining three crews

touch down in Los Angeles victorious.

‐ So, this is huge.

This is all over the newspapers, first around the world.

‐ [Narrator] The world flight

is the leading aviation story of the early‐1920s,

putting Douglas's name

on the map.

His triumph wins him

a fresh contract

to build 50 more Army planes.

Douglas is now one step closer

to his dream of passenger air travel,

and his achievement is not lost on Bill Boeing.

‐ Boeing, his competitor, his rival,

ended up taking out full‐page ads in the papers

to congratulate him.

It was Boeing trying to build his brand equity

by building on top of his rivals.

(pensive music)

‐ [Narrator] With his business failing

and a hot new competitor in Douglas,

Boeing is taking a gamble

to score his own military contract.

He's redesigned a wooden plane for the Army using metal.

‐ This is a highly risky move by Bill Boeing

because there are no guarantees

that all of the money that he's spending

is really going to pay off.

‐ We didn't ask for this.

‐ Just take a look at the comparison.

It's 14% lighter.

‐ It can't be strong enough.

‐ It is!

We tested a load seven times the plane's weight.

It held up.

‐ How can I say no?

(Bill exhaling)

‐ That's the idea.

‐ Boeing was willing to gamble.

He gambled again and again on big, expensive ideas,

especially at a time when the aircraft industry

wasn't doing that well.

It was just typical of his boldness.

‐ [Narrator] But Boeing won't be celebrating long.

(pensive music)

By 1924, Henry Ford has leaped past Boeing and Douglas

to create America's first all‐metal passenger plane,

the Air Pullman.

‐ This was an aircraft built of metal, not wood, not fabric;

inside, more like a Pullman car of a train.

That was what they were going for

in the design of the interior.

‐ [Narrator] Americans are still reluctant to fly,

so Ford begins by transporting employees around the Midwest.

‐ Henry Ford was an all‐in guy.

"Not only am I getting in the airline businesses,

"I'm going deep."

Nobody played harder than Henry Ford.

‐ [Narrator] His plan is simple:

Use the Air Pullman to show flying is safe.

‐ One of our Pullmans...

It was coming back from Dayton.

It came down.

‐ Passengers?

‐ Not sure.

‐ [Narrator] One deadly crash could ruin Ford's strategy.

‐ "Fire in engine.

"Went down in farm field.

"Crashed through fence.

"Down ditch.

"Across road.

"Through second ditch.

"Second fence.

"Came to rest on farm field.

"All aboard...

"Okay.

(Henry exhaling)

"Pilot believes the plane saved them.

"But there was one casualty on the ground:

"Farmer lost a chicken."

(all laughing)

‐ Tell the farmer I'll pay for the chicken! (laughing)

‐ [Narrator] Ironically, the crash has proven the safety

of Ford's all‐metal plane,

but he won't risk another engine failure.

He secretly commissions the Ford Trimotor,

a plane with three engines instead of one,

and launches the Ford Reliability Tour,

a series of airshows designed to show the public

that flying is safe.

‐ Any time that Henry Ford would put his name on something,

it brought with it a certain panache,

a certain sort of vision in the American mind

that it was something reliable and dependable

and, in many ways, on the cutting edge.

‐ There's not a lotta folks in the world

that say, "I'm gonna take on a totally separate industry

"in a totally different literal stratosphere."

‐ [Narrator] Ford's so confident he'll dominate the skies

like he does the car market that he even lets

other plane makers enter his Reliability Tour.

But he's in for a surprise.

In 1924, Dutch‐born plane maker Anthony Fokker

arrives in America.

He's world‐famous for building an airplane

that allowed World War I flying ace Manfred von Richthofen,

the Red Baron, to terrorize Allied pilots.

(plane propeller whirring)

‐ Anthony Fokker is a very interesting character.

He is very global, very cosmopolitan,

and he is very much committed

to entering the United States market.

‐ Fokker is renowned.

He wasn't a great individual.

He was not very nice to his employees.

‐ Fokker was brilliant in many ways,

but he was also undisciplined,

impetuous, kind of child‐like.

He was addicted to candy and kept gorging on candy.

‐ Not sweet enough.

(soft electronic music)

‐ [Narrator] Fokker will try anything

to get a leg up in the American market.

He learns from a source that Ford is producing a tri‐motor

and quickly designs his own, entering it in Ford's tour

before the mogul has even finished his.

‐ His was liberal in borrowing.

He borrowed heavily from other people's work.

(pensive music)

‐ Mr. Fokker!

‐ Mr. Ford!

Such a pleasure to meet you.

‐ Welcome to the Reliability Tour.

You'll be flying a tri‐motor, I understand.

‐ Yes, it's new.

Very safe.

‐ Interesting.

‐ Fokker says, "Hey, Ford, I'm gonna show you guys

"how you really design airplanes."

‐ There's an awful lot of stealing of ideas

going back and forth during this era of early aviation.

‐ Well, I'll let you get on with your work.

‐ Thank you.

Must get ready for the competition.

‐ (laughing) It'll be a friendly one, I promise.

‐ [Narrator] But Henry Ford

is not about to be outmaneuvered.

‐ Get somebody over to the hangar tonight.

I need something done.

(soft electronic music)

‐ [Narrator] It's 1926, and titan Henry Ford

is playing a game of corporate espionage

with aviation giant Anthony Fokker as they battle to launch

a new game‐changing plane with three motors.

‐ There's something I need done.

The Fokker plane.

I want every inch of it measured.

Take photographs.

I wanna know everything there is to know about that plane.

‐ Fokker brought over his new tri‐motor plane,

and sounds like the Ford engineers

got to take a very, very close look at it.

‐ [Narrator] Both Fokker and Ford

know there's a potential fortune to be made

on commercial air travel.

But they need to build a safer plane

that the public will trust,

and they'll do whatever it takes to be the first.

(pensive music)

Bill Boeing is also determined

to build a successful passenger plane.

For now, military contracts are keeping his business going.

But he knows from his experience

not to depend on them for long.

Luckily, he gets a lifeline from a surprising place.

‐ Aviation was still kind of looking for its market,

and one way the government helped

was by encouraging the Post Office

to launch airmail delivery.

It was a really smart decision

that encouraged a lot of companies

to get into the business of flying mail.

All of a sudden, you had aviation companies,

you had airlines, and these were springing up

all over the country.

‐ [Narrator] Boeing, unlike his rivals,

plans to manufacture planes and operate his own airline,

delivering mail.

He calls it Boeing Air Transport.

In 1926, Boeing bids on the lucrative

Chicago‐to‐San‐Francisco route, but he has bigger plans.

‐ I want a small cabin, for passengers.

‐ Less space for mail.

‐ It's worth it.

(soft electronic music)

‐ The genius in that

was he basically double‐dipped, (laughing) right?

So, he's using one to launch the other.

He just adds two chairs

that he ends up just drilling into the plane.

I mean, these were not specific aviation chairs.

He's like, "We'll just put some chairs in here."

‐ This was brilliant.

Bill Boeing was essentially beta‐testing a new market.

It was a way for him to dip his toe into a market

while reducing potential risk.

‐ [Narrator] In early 1927, he wins the contract

and plans to carry two passengers

plus mail each flight.

His timing couldn't be better.

‐ Along comes Charles Lindbergh,

and he's gonna challenge this thing

that has never happened before:

flying nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean.

(plane engine whirring)

‐ [Narrator] 33 hours after leaving New York,

Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. Louis" lands in Paris

and is mobbed by thousands.

‐ It changed aviation for the rest of all time for humanity.

It showed us that the airplane

might be a viable mechanism for global travel.

‐ And the whole country went airplane crazy,

and anybody that had the money wanted to fly.

‐ [Narrator] By 1929,

the airplane manufacturing business triples

and the annual number of passengers

rises from a few thousand to 173,000.

Looking to capitalize on the booming air travel market,

Henry Ford launches his now‐completed Trimotor.

It quickly becomes the passenger plane

everyone's talking about.

(pensive music)

(phone ringing)

‐ Ah!

Mr. Fokker.

To what do I owe this pleasure?

‐ You know why I'm calling!

You took my plane and you copied it!

‐ Well, I hardly think that's true.

‐ I'll bet you told your engineers

to make my plane, but just do it in metal.

‐ [Henry] Well, I did no such thing.

‐ You know what you are, Ford?

You're a cheat and you're a thief!

But‐

(phone receiver slamming)

‐ [Narrator] As the 1920s draw to a close,

competitors look to dominate

the growing passenger plane market.

But soon, two will find themselves suddenly

out of the game.

(soft electronic music)

(gentle pop music)

(pensive music)

‐ [Narrator] In October 1929, US stock prices plunge,

a crash that will ultimately wipe away

80% of the market value.

‐ The stock market crash of 1929

and the resulting depression

has a devastating effect on the nation as a whole.

Factories are shuttered.

Nearly a quarter of Americans are out of work.

‐ [Narrator] Among the major aviation players,

Henry Ford feels it first.

His annual sales plunge from over 90 planes to just two.

‐ (laughing) Remember when we built that monoplane?

‐ Of course, it was a monstrosity. (laughing)

‐ It sure was. (laughing)

We're gonna wind down the aviation business.

‐ Why?

We've had a bad year, but we can turn it around.

‐ We've done our part.

‐ It's a rude awakening for Henry Ford,

but it's a realistic one.

Rather than let his automobile industry wither on the vine,

he doubles back down on autos.

‐ Henry Ford, he is not one like Boeing or Douglas,

who are very much enraptured with aviation.

To him, it is another opportunity,

which, again, explains why he can walk away.

‐ [Narrator] Things are much worse

for another aviation executive.

(pensive music)

(phone ringing)

On March 31st, 1931, a 12‐seat commercial airliner

loses a wing and nosedives into a farm field.

One of the eight dead

is celebrated Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne.

The plane?

A Fokker Trimotor.

‐ [Man on phone] The press is calling,

and they're asking about the plane.

‐ You don't wanna be the guy that built the plane

that killed America's beloved football coach.

‐ [Narrator] Fokker's Trimotor has a metal body.

But to save money, he's continued to use wooden wings.

Investigators find the wings were structurally unsound,

causing one to break off in flight.

‐ As planes got bigger and heavier and faster,

the limitations of wood were coming to the surface.

One limitation was inspect all those wooden joints,

so you couldn't really tell, "Is it still good?"

‐ [Narrator] All of Fokker's planes are grounded.

His US operation will collapse and later be sold.

(soft pensive orchestral music)

With two rivals fading fast,

Bill Boeing sees an opening.

‐ It's important to remember,

wealthy folks rode out the Depression in pretty good style.

If you wanted to fly off on vacation

and somebody had a way for you to get there,

you could do it.

‐ [Narrator] Airline ridership is exploding

and will double over the next five years.

In late‐1931, Boeing gives his booming business a new name:

United Air Lines.

And to take it over the top,

he builds a new airline: the Boeing 247.

Its top speed of 200 miles per hour

will be 50 miles per hour faster

than any other commercial airliner on Earth.

‐ It was clearly the most modern plane built up to that time

and perhaps the safest plane built up to that time.

And one of the things

that you hear people say about it most,

even at the time, is, "Just looks right."

‐ [Narrator] But the 247 has another innovation,

one that has nothing to do with its design.

‐ So, during these beginning days

of the airlines flying was,

today we would look at it as a very miserable experience.

It was very rough.

You flew low, flew through the weather, lots of turbulence.

‐ There's a pilot and a copilot

in the front of the airplane,

but they don't come back and talk to you.

The airplane begins to fly through a storm, begins to buck.

"What's happening?

"Are we safe; are we gonna crash?"

‐ So, this gave a young lady an idea.

Her name was Ellen Church, and she was a nurse.

If you have a young lady on the flight

who's a registered nurse,

her presence will help to calm the passengers.

‐ [Narrator] Boeing is the first to deploy

what are then known as stewardesses,

the first modern‐day flight attendants.

Soon, every airline copies the idea.

Boeing starts producing a fleet of 247s

for his United Air Lines,

and it quickly becomes the new must‐have airplane.

But when rival TWA tries to order some,

Boeing makes a surprising decision.

‐ Boeing says, "We're sorry.

"Maybe after the first 20 are delivered,

"we might be able to get you in."

And that's not acceptable.

‐ [Narrator] What Boeing doesn't know

is that TWA will turn to a rival plane maker

and commission one of the most iconic aircrafts of all time.

(soft electronic music)

In 1933, TWA is looking to build a passenger plane

to compete with Bill Boeing's 247,

the pride of United Air Lines,

and TWA is banking on Donald Douglas.

‐ You've heard the story of the tortoise and the hare?

Bill Boeing's the hare.

Donald Douglas is very much the tortoise.

‐ [Narrator] The TWA job is the opening

Douglas has been waiting years for.

He calls his two‐engine plane the Douglas Commercial,

or the DC‐1.

It's faster than Boeing's 247

and can carry two more passengers,

but it's 3,000 pounds heavier.

And TWA has one non‐negotiable demand.

‐ It was almost mind‐blowing in how advanced it was.

They wanted to be sure that that plane

could take off with one engine and fly.

‐ We're gonna need one hell of an engine.

‐ [Narrator] The test is set for September 12th, 1933.

Winslow, Arizona, is chosen for its high altitude

and thin air, which makes takeoff even harder.

‐ Could you survive on takeoff if one of your engines fail?

Gonna tend to cause the plan to crab, maybe even roll.

The pilot has no idea how he's supposed to react.

If you react the wrong way,

you're gonna crash the plane and probably die.

(pensive electronic music)

‐ Can she do it?

‐ We're about to find out.

(plane propeller whirring)

At takeoff, the pilot cuts one of the two engines,

causing the giant plane to struggle.

‐ Come on, girl.

Come on.

Come on!

Come on!

Yes.

Yes!

Oh, yes!

TWA just got itself one hell of a plane.

‐ It's said that the propellers almost scraped the runway,

but it did get into the air, it proved its point.

And the DC‐1 went on to become

one of the most iconic aircraft in aviation history.

‐ The airplane was so much better,

better than anything, the 247, anything that was out there.

Douglas dominated the market.

‐ [Narrator] Within three years,

DC planes, most commonly the DC‐3,

carry over 90% of US commercial air traffic.

By 1940, Douglas is raking in $61 million a year

from DC orders, $1.1 billion today.

‐ If you've ever looked at what built America

from an aviation perspective, it was the DC‐3.

‐ I was in Antarctica about 16‐17 months ago,

and you see DC‐3 aircraft.

So, we're talking aircraft that are like 75 years old.

They're flying scientists all around

in the harshest climates in the world

where other aircraft can't go.

‐ [Narrator] 13,000 DC‐3s will be built

compared to only 75 of Boeing's 247.

‐ This is an important business lesson

that the Boeing Company,

Boeing Airplane Company learned the hard way.

‐ [Narrator] Two decades later,

Boeing launches a new airplane

that will dominate the market for years to come, the 707.

Sadly, Boeing dies a year later,

having never seen the dominance of the 707

and its iconic successors, the 747 and the 737,

which will become the bestselling aircraft

of all time.

‐ If you get on an airplane,

the odds are very high that you're getting into an airplane

built by the company that Bill Boeing built.

‐ [Narrator] In 1996, Boeing buys rival McDonnell Douglas

in a deal worth more than $13 billion.

‐ It's hard to quantify the passion of these individuals.

Getting involved in this industry is a gamble,

so they were all risk‐takers.

Each of them, they made their own imprint.

(plane propeller whirring)

‐ These guys were brave and a little bit crazy

to try and fly some of these things,

but they pushed forward our civilization

to what we are today.

‐ She was born to fly.

She might just fly on forever.

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