This 1967 color film by Ling-Temco-Vought (LVT) surveys the history of flight with a celebration of the 50-year-old aerospace firm’s achievements in the field of aviation. Rare footage of the SB2U Vindicator, F4U Corsair, V-173 “Flying Pancake,” the TT-1 Pinto, the XC-142 “tiltwing” experimental aircraft, and early jets are featured alongside the more commonly photographed F7U Cutlass, the F-8 Crusader, and the A-7 Corsair. Aerial combat footage from World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War are also included, along with portraits of famous pilots Amelia Earhart and John Glenn (TRT 22:29).

Birds soaring in flight (0:08). A montage of early ill-fated experiments in aviation (0:37). Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur, with their early powered airplanes (1:04). WWII aerial combat. Mud filled trench warfare. A propeller-driven fighter plane takes a dive. Eddie Rickenbacker in closeup. Hans Richter’s Flying Circus (1:43). The interior of an aircraft assembly factory. The Vought VE-7 “Bluebird” biplane of 1917 and its solid block, water-cooled Hispano-Suiza engine (2:48). A victory parade: doughboys marching home. Barnstorming daredevils (3:37). A mail truck, “United States Postal Service Air Mail Special” and a U.S. Mail plane (4:18). Jimmy Doolittle, developer of instrument flying (4:30). 1921 army bombers and the sinking of the German battleship SMS Ostfriesland (4:54). A Vought VE-7 launches from the USS Maryland (5:20). The first U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Jupiter (Navy Fleet Collier No. 3, aka the USS Langley). VE-7s and V9s take off and land from carriers. A Vought UO-1, the first plane to be catapulted from a battleship at night (5:30). Shipping via the Panama Canal (6:00). Wasp radial, air-cooled engines (6:22). Steel propellers. The Vought O2U Corsair of 1927 (6:54). Christian F. Schilt with an O2U Corsair after receiving the Medal of Honor for a rescue in Nicaragua (7:30). Charles Lindberg or “Lindy” on the Spirit of St. Louis in flight. An early Ford Trimotor “tin goose” commercial aircraft (7:51). National Air Races, a “carnival of the air.” The Vought SU2 Corsair, developed from the O2U series with a Hornet engine (8:14). A variable-pitch propeller debuts. A Vought SBU-1, their first all-metal design (9:12). Amelia Earhart and a Lockheed 5B Vega. Nazi soldiers (10:05). Scenes of research and development. A Vought monoplane Vindicator in still photographs (10:30). The Vought OS2U Kingfisher and the F4U Corsair (11:25). WWII. Planes taking off. Pearl Harbor (12:26). The Battle of Midway. Japanese cruisers and destroyers are attacked. Guadalcanal. Corsairs soar into battle. “The whistling death” (13:42). The Vought V-173 “Flying Pancake” (15:32). Color footage of early jets. The twin-engine Cutlass employs an afterburner (16:08). Korea. Displaced civilians. Jets deploy, Corsairs return (16:44). The supersonic F8U Crusader. John Glenn in flight (17:46). An array of weapons (18:32). Jets launch near Vietnam. The Temco TT-1 Pinto debuts (18:50). Testing with a small wind tunnel, early computers at an LTV research center (19:35). A montage of LTV employees at work in an aircraft manufacturing factory (20:00). The Ling-Temco-Vought XC-142 tri-service tiltwing experimental aircraft of 1964 (20:20). The LTV A-7 Corsair II of 1965. A Montage of previous scenes and the new Corsair II taking flight from a carrier (21:07).