Breakthrough: The Ideas That Changed the World

(classical music) -

Narrator

In 1870, a 20 year old Frenchman Alphonse Penaud had a brainstorm. He designed the toy helicopter, driven by a twisted rubber band. A year later, he designed another model, the Planophore. The toy flew for almost 200 feet. Next, Penaud designed a full-size airplane. It featured twin propellors, an autopilot, and retracting landing gear. It was years ahead of its time. Yet with the big money in ballooning, Penaud couldn't persuade anyone to invest in him. Depressed, aged 30, he took his own life. (bell tinkling) But Penaud's work would not be in vain. Around the time of his death, a man walked into a store and bought a toy helicopter inspired by Penaud's design for his two young sons, Wilbur and Orville. This machine would trigger an obsession with mechanical flight that would eventually take us to the air.