ability to fly

Today's selection -- from A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived by Adam Rutherford.

When  will  humans  evolve  the  ability  to fly?: A television  producer  once  took  me  to  lunch  to  ask  me  a  very  important  question:  'When  will  humans  evolve  the  ability  to fly?' A new superhero series was coming to television, with muta­tions in the characters' DNA that were gifting them uncanny comic-book powers of flight, telekinesis, time travel, mind control, and so on, rather like Marvel's mutant X-Men, but definitely not Marvel's mutant X-Men. The producers were interested in a sci­ence program that might sit alongside the drama, about the real science of incredible human abilities, and the real-world possibili­ties of the evolution of these types of superpowers.

Seconds into the first airplane flight, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina; December 17, 1903. Photo first published in 1908.