“Aviator heroes: a wing and a race”

There was a time when aviators were as well-known as Hollywood stars and great athletes. Hundreds of thousands of people showed up to seek their autographs – to watch them fly – to watch them race – to watch them live – and on not so rare occasions, to watch them die. The Golden Years of the 1920s was the height of daredevil aerobatics, and this program, made for viewing at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, reveals the feelings, the attitudes, some of the spectacular successes and of the dramatic failures of some of the great aviators – including Jimmy Doolittle.