like we all haven't seen this stock footage thousands of times before

Okay 1 star for each one I've never see before

Seeing these makes me wish that some of the more bizarre ones actually did work.

This is like an art project, right?

back from when most people assumed flight was possible only through a combination of flapping and magic

dialogue for every one of these:
"It's working!! It's working!! I feel like I'm lifting off already!!! How high am I?? Top o' the world mama!!"

god bless em for trying!

This history of failure is somehow just as awesome as the history on success.

"Well, if two small wings aren't working, we obviously need more wings. More wings means more flyin'!"

I think my favorite thing is how completely unprepared these guys are for their thing not to work. That one guy doesn't seem to have thought, Well what if the rockets I'm strapping to my back explode?

I think some of these might have been designed by eccentrics.

one of the plywood bird wings guys actually died trying to use his flying machine (which had already failed twice) off the eiffel tower