Wilbur and Orville Wright had no college degrees, no government funding, and no engineering credentials. They ran a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. Yet they solved the problem of powered flight that had defeated some of the best-funded scientists in the world — and they did it by approaching the problem differently than everyone else, prioritizing control over raw power.

This episode traces the Wright brothers from their printing press and bicycle shop through the wind tunnel experiments, the glider tests at Kitty Hawk, and the twelve seconds of powered flight on December 17, 1903 that changed the world forever.

• How a childhood toy helicopter sparked a lifelong obsession with flight
• The bicycle shop engineering approach that gave them an edge over funded rivals
• The breakthrough insight about wing warping and three-a ...