Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight

Almost without funding and perhaps naive in their ambition, two bicycle shop owners changed history with the first powered flight in a craft scarcely worthy of praise as lofty as "rudimentary"... at least to modern eyes. Difficult to control and incapable of carrying more than 150 pounds including even the pilot, the Wright Flyer bettered other, bigger (and lavishly funded) engineering teams then working to solve the riddles of powered, controlled flight.

Today we can easily imagine the exhilaration of that first flight, but we may not at first pause to consider the realities of the airborne experience: wooden propellors driven by bicycle chains, muslin-covered wings, an engine generating 12 horsepower. Takeoffs and landings are unpredictable at best, and the first successful flight lasted all of 12 seconds. The elegance of such astonishing success belies a crucible of self-sacrifice and daredevil perseverance.