This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is our American stories, and our next story comes to us from a man who's simply known as the History Guy.

His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of people of all ages on YouTube.

The History Guy is also heard here at our American Stories where he's a regular contributor.

Here's the History Guy with the fascinating story about the Medal of Honor recipient Rear Admiral

Richard Bird, the age of polar exploration and the future of aviation.

We live in an era where air travel is common. According to the International Civil Aviation

Organization, 3.5 billion passengers were carried by scheduled

air service in 2015. But a few flown, the odds are that you flew in a heavier-than-air

aircraft, and the general alternative lighter than air-travelist largely relegated to a leisure

activity. But that was not always a case. There was a time when great airships challenged the

airplane for dominion of the skies. And the pinnacle of that era was arguably in 1926 with a competition

between two of the world's greatest explorers. It's history that deserves to be remembered.

In general, aircraft come in two categories. A lighter-than-air aircraft or aerostat works by principles of buoyancy.

The average density of the craft is lower than the density of atmospheric air, and so it rises.

Essentially a bag filled with gas that is less dense than air produces lift.

The alternative, aerodynes, fly due to aerodynamic lift, which requires movement of a wing surface through an airman.

In the 1920s, the competition between Aerostat and Aerodyne took on a particular importance in terms of polar exploration.

The period of the end of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century included what was the so-called heroic age of polar exploration.

Explorers from a number of nations went to explore the most hostile and least understood environments on Earth in both the Arctic and the Antarctic.

This was called the heroic age because technology was limited.

Conditions were primitive and the exploration was extremely dangerous and very often, deadly.

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