Flight: See How It’s Really Done

Most pilots have had the dream … the one where gravity melts away, and you can lift both feet off the ground and fly like a bird. It’s the ultimate in aviating, and while nobody yet has figured out exactly how to make it work for humans, you can get a taste of it at Discovery’s bird-tech site, where video shots from tiny cameras attached to Tilly the golden eagle reveal every twist and turn of this most-sophisticated all-natural flight-management system. The technology is a step beyond what was used to film the movie, Winged Migration, released in 2001. To capture birds in flight in that film, those filmmakers followed them aloft using gliders, helicopters, balloons, remote-controlled model aircraft and ultralights. Five teams worked for three years, visiting seven continents. If you missed it in theaters, the film is now out on DVD.