I found out just a few years ago that many earthworms are invasive species in North America: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_earthworms_of_North_America.
Apparently the last ice age cleared out all the earthworms north of the 49th, and existing native species didn't migrate back after the glaciers receded, leaving many northern and west-coast forests without earthworms at all.
We were almost at the "Praetorian Guards Decide Who Rules" stage of the Fall of the American Empire; they just didn't have the numbers this time.
Other folks had covered the wing aspect, I wanted to discuss the engine portion. Both are cogent.
This part is half-right: the work of the engine is going to accelerating the plane forward, or (when thrust and drag are in equilibrium) maintaining the current velocity. But in level flight, the engine is not "keeping the plane in the air" - it is impossible for it to contribute to lift directly because it's force vector is 90 degrees from the lift vector.
Therefore, some of the engine’s energy is going into keeping the plane in the air, and some is going into accelerating it forwards, or keeping it at the same speed (fighting air resistance).
This is where you make an unsupported leap:
Therefore, if the plane points straight up, the engine should be able to support it hovering in the air. If it didn’t have enough power to fight gravity when pointing straight up, it wouldn’t have enough power to fight gravity when moving horizontally, either.
A car can accelerate horizontally because its engine can rotate its tires to apply horizontal force due to friction and mechanical advantage; does that mean it can drive straight up a wall? Of course not (outside of some specialized bouldering vehicles). The engine lacks the power to lift the car straight up, and the tires lack the grip to hold on to a vertical surface. The drivetrain is designed for efficient road cruising, not high power and grip
It's the same for aircraft, generally: a given engine usually has enough power to accelerate the aircraft horizontally, and applies this through some kind of prop or jet rotor. But this combination is tuned for efficient cruising, not vertical climbing. The engine won't provide enough power, and the prop can't move enough air, to sustain vertical flight indefinitely.
"But Sleet01," you cry, "helicopters exist!" Just so! They trade cruise efficiency for vertical thrust by greatly increasing the size of the prop, increasing the mechanical advantage so that less engine power is needed to hover or climb vertically. That's like putting 4" wheels covered in suction cups on your car - now it can go straight up, but you can't go very far or very fast!
"But Sleet01," you exclaim, "F-15s exist and can fly vertically almost to space!" Indeed they do, but in order to fly an F-15 vertically you need to burn immense amounts of fuel, almost 400 gallons per minute. That's like putting two turbo V8s in your Jeep - now you have the power to go vertical, but only for a couple minutes!
My first reaction: "whoo, more of these two!"
My second reaction, being only partway through Season 2: "...shit, are they still not together!?"
I'm a big fan of C. J. Cherryh's Chanur series, where humans are on an at least equal footing but mainly incidental (except for a few parts). The nice part is you can then read her Cyteen and Foreigner series to find out how being technologically advanced doesn't necessarily always work out well for the humans.
I wonder if there's a full archive up anywhere; KONG (King 5's spinoff station) re-ran all the episodes a few years* back (when The 206 was trying to be a thing) so somebody might have some recent high-quality captures or something.
*due to COVID Time, "a few years" means up to 10 years ago ;_;)
Narrator: "He could not."
Doubtful; A) that would cause rust, and B) it'd have to pay to get that capability in the first place!
Honestly, I had zero expectations of Vending Machine but it's mildly exceeded them. Way better than it has any right to be.