This British produced short film GLIDING featuring Leslie Welch (popularly known as the “Memory Man”) and Brian Johnston. The film was produced in 1952 as part of the “Sports Page” series and looks at the sport of gliding. It shows glider construction, and piloting. The National Gliding Championships (also known as the British Gliding Championship) of 1950 or 1951 are featured. The meeting took place in Darbyshire. The event included a 186-mile glider flight. At 4:30, Philip Wills is shown. Wills won the the Britannia Trophy, a British award presented by the Royal Aero Club for aviators accomplishing the most meritorious performance in aviation during the previous year. Wills’ flight is shown in the Alps along a triangular course.
The film also shows Leonardo DaVinci’s glider design, and some historical gliders in a museum in Germany. At 8:00, Leslie Welch makes his appearance on the show. At 9:29, the construction of gliders is shown, and at 11:30 the use of gliders in WWII is shown. Glider training of aviation cadets is seen at 12:50, with gliders launched by cable tow.
Philip Aubrey Wills CBE (26 May 1907 – 16 January 1978) was a pioneering British glider pilot. He broke several gliding records and was the 1952 Open Class World Champion. He remained a regular member of the British Team until 1958. He was second in command of the Air Transport Auxiliary during World War II. He was chairman of the British Gliding Association for 19 years and was awarded the CBE and the Lilienthal Gliding Medal for services to gliding.
As early as 1934 he was active in the affairs of the British Gliding Association (BGA), when he forced a change in its constitution to ensure that it represented gliding clubs, not a small number of individual members. He was Chairman of the BGA for 19 years until the members felt that a change was needed. However, during his period in office, his connections ensured that British gliding was able to regulate itself without much intervention from government agencies. He also successfully fought to minimise the amount of controlled airspace. In 1954 his services were recognised by the award of the Otto Lilienthal Medal by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.
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
