The sea. Thousands upon thousands of miles of empty water. Though sinking may seem to be the worst that can happen to a ship at sea, it's actually fire that creates the most horrific pain and suffering, because not only does a fire at sea mean a ship is going down, but passengers and crew have two choices, be burned alive, or jump into an unforgiving ocean.

In the first part of the 20th century, a seeming miracle took place. Humans learned how to fly. Using restored film footage and high definition photographs, we tell the stories of the early years, when aviators put their lives on the line and captured the world's imagination.

They can turn bright blue skies dark as the night. They can, in an instant, make entire cities disappear. They are natural disasters - unforgiving forces of nature that bend steel, smash concrete and rip human bodies to shreds. Rampaging floods, roiling oceans, boiling mountains of lava - the beauty of nature can turn on a dime, creating some of the most horrific events ever recorded in history.