On July 1, 1974, Francis Thompson, Inc., a noted New York based producer of promotional and exhibit films, drafted a proposal for the Smithsonian Institution to produce a documentary on the history of flight as a bicentennial event for the new National Air and Space Museum. Financial support was provided by the Continental Oil Company, later Conoco, Inc., and the commission was given to MacGillivray-Freeman Films of Laguna Beach, Calif.

The result was To Fly, a spectacular, award-winning documentary in the new IMAX format that had its premier at the Museum on July 1, 1976, and has been shown there ever since, as well as in other IMAX-equipped venues. The film combines a look at manned flight from hot air balloons to space exploration with the patriotic story of America's westward and then upward expansion. It astounded audiences with its then-uprecedented level of definition and stereo sound and spectacular point-of-view shots of motion and flight.

In 1981, the company, now Conoco, Inc., again collaborated with MacGillivray-Freeman Films and Dennis Earl Moore Productions to produce a second IMAX film for the National Air and Space Museum. Flyers, released in 1982, tells the story of Kyle Murphy, a fictional World War II pilot who becomes a plane restorer and movie stunt pilot and over the course of the film inspires his young cameraman to become a stunt pilot himself. The film features even more spectacular footage of recreated World War I and World War II aerial combat, including dogfights, a crippled landing on an aircraft carrier, and a wing-walking stunt over the Grand Canyon.

Following the success of Flyers, Conoco, Inc., contracted with Random House, Inc., on March 4, 1982, to create a companion picture storybook of the same title for young readers.