note that we have a date and time change for the premiere – it is now on
May 10th at 8PM
A new part of the “Confederate Flying Machine” documentary has just been released. Watch it here
or here
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/national-geographic-channel/all-videos/ngc-davidsons-proposal/
The Mad Systems team is at work building the craft here
or here:
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/national-geographic-channel/all-videos/ngc-testing-the-propeller/
The “Confederate Flying Machine” National Geographic documentary premieres on TV in the USA on the 10th May 2012 at 8PM. Mad Systems had the privilege to be involved (very involved…) with the project, and we look forward to seeing this controversial story.
The history of aviation will never be the same.
Recently uncovered documents from the 1860s provide strong and shocking evidence that, long before the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, desperate inventors and engineers imagined steam-powered flying machines that would decide the Civil War. In the early 1860s, A Mississippi Doctor with a passion for birds and an obsession with the idea of manned flight makes a scale model of what he hopes will become the first heavier-than-air war-plane. Tethered to a locomotive, his model becomes airborne. But his requests for funding are rejected by the Virginia Legislature and the Engineering Department, leaving him no choice but to turn to the Confederate soldiers themselves to finance the building of a fleet of these flying machines. While he never raises more than a few hundred dollars before the war ends, it is impossible not to wonder – what if? Follow EXPLORER as we unravel the story of Civil War aviation and attempt to build and fly a full-scale 19th century airplane of our own.
One Comment
Interesting – did the show just screen there?
The complexity of lift is something that the program clearly didn’t want to get into, and in all fairness, it really depends on what you read as to what the most commonly held theory is, as things have been changing over the past couple of years. During our research I found a whole host of new material with regards to lift that I wasn’t aware of, and which we, as pilots, found very interesting.
The biggest problem I found with the program was actually with the depiction and explanation of a spin… it was quite incorrect, but unfortunately we don’t get the opportunity to vet the data presented before the program airs….
best regards
Maris