Five programmes on the impact of the aeroplane on western imagination. 5: A Song of Ascent. "The aeroplane, advance guard of the conquering armies of the new age, the aeroplane arouses our energies and our faith." So proclaimed Le Corbusier. Coming as the flying machine did on the heels of an apparently never-ending series of technological innovations, it seemed to confirm that the peoples of the west had subjugated nature to their will and it promised even greater victories.