In this U.S. Air Force News Review (no. 31), viewers see the current Air Force news of 1958. The first piece of news is Maj. Howard Johnson setting a new record for altitude. Johnson climbs aboard a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter (YF-104A 55-2957) and takes off, flying above the Mojave Desert. He sets a new altitude record of 91240 ft. Next, the newsreel shows flooding in the spring of 1958 in Louisiana from the Red River (02:06). Men from nearby Barksdale Air Force Base fill sand bags and haul them down river to reinforce dykes. A man sits at a radio control room and dispatches a helicopter. Men use sandbags to reinforce a levy. Viewers then see the Sacramento Peak Observatory in New Mexico (03:30), which studies activity on the sun; footage shows an explosion on the surface of the sun (04:17). The newsreel then goes to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas for a look at cadets going through a confidence course. Cadets engage in PT (04:37), climb up a large tower, and bail off a high platform to simulate parachuting to earth. They then run through a course lined with flames (06:09). The trainees go through a combat obstacle course (06:35), swinging over water and climbing up a rocky cliff. In Spain, viewers see the Air Force Base in Villatobas (07:18). Inside a building, men monitor radar. A Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw helicopter team takes off for a weekly observation of an oil pipeline (07:47); they fly over the ruins of a Roman bridge and an old bull ring. They also fly over Cordoba and past the city’s old castle (09:04). In Ohio, General E.S. Ligon speaks to the camera from his office about the new method of enlisting prior servicemen. The final segment takes viewers to New Mexico for a missile test. A Ryan Firebee (11:18), a jet-powered target drone, is wheeled to a B-26 mothership. An F-102 Delta Dagger is armed with Falcon guided rockets (12:01). The B-26 takes off, carrying the Firebee; the F-102 takes off shortly after. The drone is dropped and flies on its own. The F-102 approaches and fires its missiles at the drone (12:52). The missiles intentionally miss the drone, which then parachutes to the ground unharmed for recovery.
We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 — President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.”
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
