9:30pm Sunday 23 December on BBC TWO
In this epic Toy Stories Christmas Special, James May gets to the heart of the nation’s childhood love-affair with the model plane, and sets out to achieve what seems an impossible dream: the first cross channel flight ever achieved by an engineless, homemade supersized toy. If it survives the perilous 22-mile journey, James’s classic toy glider lovingly built from over 1,000 pieces of balsa will smash the British distance record.
Underpinned throughout by James’s own infectious passion for flight, his mission is dedicated to making the dream of flight come true for the generations of children who, like James himself, slaved for hours over balsa and glue only to see their fragile and much-loved planes smash tragically onto the unyielding concrete of reality.
During his quest, James turns Indiana Jones to unearth surprising new evidence that identifies children as the true pioneers of flight, and wrestles with an underperforming glider that threatens to barely leave the ground. From a visit to a mysterious and barely inhabited island to helicopters lost in the fog and missing speedboats, Flight Club is an epic journey into the unexpected, culminating in a thrilling and visually stunning last throw of the dice.