American Experience: The Wright Stuff

Written, produced, and directed by Nancy Porter, this documentary chronicles how the eccentric Wright brothers overcame their own sibling bickering and the skepticism of the world to build the first successful flying machine. As Tom Crouch of the National Air and Space Museum explains in an interview, "They weren't college graduate engineers, but at the same time, they were two of the best engineers working in the world at the time." Highlights include footage of a replica of the Wright brothers' plane built by Rick and Sue Young and flown at Kitty Hawk by Jacqueline Young and David Young. Narrated by Garrison Keillor. David McCullough hosts this program, which originally aired as an episode of the Emmy award-winning PBS series The American Experience.