Covering 2000 years of history in 40 minutes flat, John Ackroyd outlines the scientific and the practical paths to achieving powered flight. Starting with the theoretical achievements made by, amongst others, Sir Isaac Newton and Sir George Cayley, and the developments in aerodynamic knowledge brought by experiments of the whirling arm and an understanding of fluid flow, John Ackroyd moves onto looking at the late nineteenth century aircraft concepts of John Stringfellow, Horatio Philips, Otto Lilienthal, Percy Pilcher, Sir Hiram Maxim and Samuel Langley. Serendipity, Ackroyd argues, brought the two paths together to enable the Wright Brothers to fly.

The lecture concludes with a question and answer session.

The lecture was part of a seminar, "The beginnings of powered flight: The Wright Brothers contribution to aviation", which was organised by the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Historical Group on 10 May 2003. The podcasts were edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS and they were digitised thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation.