The film explores the life and achievements of Nikolay Yegorovich Zhukovsky, a pioneering scientist and the father of modern aerodynamics. During the early days of aviation, when many pilots lost their lives due to the flaws in aircraft design, Zhukovsky’s experiments were seen as extraordinarily risky. However, he found a brave ally in military pilot Pyotr Nesterov, who became the first in the world to perform the famous "loop-the-loop," now known as the "Nesterov Loop."
Zhukovsky laid the foundation for modern aerodynamics, developing calculations that enabled the construction of safer flying machines. In a conversation between Dmitri Mendeleev and Zhukovsky, Mendeleev recounts a soldier’s testimony about witnessing Alexander Mozhaysky's successful airplane test. The film dramatizes this unrealized flight and criticizes the tsarist government for abandoning research into heavier-than-air flight due to bureaucratic rigidity and reliance on foreign authorities.
The film portrays Dmitry Ryabushinsky in a negative light, reflecting the Soviet Union's disdain for prominent figures of the Russian emigration. Although Ryabushinsky was recognized internationally for his scientific contributions—being elected a corresponding member of the Paris Academy of Sciences—he is depicted not as a scientist but as a self-serving entrepreneur. His incompetence is emphasized, including a scene where Zhukovsky abruptly silences Ryabushinsky during a discussion with students, highlighting his inability to contribute meaningfully to the conversation.
