Wings (Discovery Channel TV series)

Wings was an hour-long televised aviation history documentary series which aired on the Discovery Channel family of networks. It was produced by Phil Osborn.

Originally called Great Planes, the Wings series initially aired Wednesdays and Saturdays on the Discovery Channel in the U.S. from 9-10 p.m. Eastern beginning in 1988 and into the early 1990s.

"Great Planes" was the original subset of "Wings" episodes which focused on one particular aircraft type. The original "Great Planes" series was initially produced by Aviation Video International in Australia, and distributed by the Discovery Channel.

When it initially aired in America, the majority of episodes were narrated by the series' Australian writer and director, Luke Swann, with some others written and narrated by John Honey and Phil Chugg. In 1991 (notably following the first Gulf War), episodes were re-edited to include interviews with pilots of the profiled aircraft types before and following commercial breaks, and the narration was re-dubbed with American narrators Ron David and Tom Hair.

Some other episodes profiled non-American aircraft, including the Aérospatiale-British Aerospace Concorde, Mitsubishi A6M Zero, Panavia Tornado, and Supermarine Spitfire.

A series of six episodes, entitled "Strange Planes" (and later released on VHS video), focused on several unusual aircraft types:

These programs were shown occasionally during the wings time slot. They were produced from various sources.

Starting in the mid 1990s, newer Wings episodes (sometimes referred to as "Wings II") would focus on the history or operations of a particular foreign air force, such as the Israeli Air Force, a foreign aviation company or design bureau such as France's Dassault or Russia's Mikoyan, or the aircraft of a particular conflict such as the Korean War or the Afghan-Soviet War. These episodes, narrated by Stuart Culpepper, often had interviews with the aircrews and famed aviation historian/writer Jeffrey Ethell, the "Fighter Writer".

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