On the foggy morning of July 25, 1909, French aviator Louis Bleriot took off from the coast of France in his fragile, underpowered Model XI monoplane. About 37 minutes later, Bleriot landed on the white cliffs of Dover, England, pulling off the first long-distance flight over water and the first crossing of a national boundary. His courageous feat created a sensation as big as the first Apollo moon landing.

Although immortalized by his cross-Channel flight, Bleriot’s early struggles as a pioneering designer and test pilot were nearly as remarkable. Surviving nearly a dozen crashes, he improvised his way into the air, defying his critics, including his own mother who declared, “Louis has gone completely mad.”

A Daring Flight captures the thrilling formative years of flight, when the French were mad about airplanes and tried everything to fly. It is also a story of present-day flying dreams, as Louis Bleriot’s grandson decides to recreate his grandfather’s epic flight in a nearly identical-now antique-aircraft, with touching and inspiring results.

Special DVD features include: materials and activities for educators; a link to the NOVA Web site; scene selections; closed captions; and described video for the visually impaired.

On one DVD5 disc. Region coding: All regions. Audio: Dolby stereo. Screen format: Letterboxed.