Made by the Central Office of Information, Foreign and Commonwealth Office — the UK government’s marketing and communications agency — “People in the Sky” shows the state of UK passenger air travel in the late 1970s and demonstrates its advance since 1914. Initially viewed as a daredevil adventure for the wealthy, plane flights were now available to all walks of life. The film opens with a shot of passengers asleep on a British Airways Flight creating an image of trust and relaxation in air travel (:18). In 1980, only about 5% of people in the world had ever been on a plane (1:52). Passengers previously had been financed by freight which was mostly air mail letters (2:29). By 1980, about 11 billion pounds of cargo was handled by the London Airport annually (2:34) and about a thousand flights were handled daily (3:12). The film follows a family of three with a daughter; Katie, who is flying from London to Australia and they are seen inside the London Heathrow Airport (3:22). This is one of the busiest airports in the world where planes take off and land in about 60 second intervals (3:32). Fuel storage tanks are shown stored below the tarmac (3:42). Fuel is pumped into the wings (3:42). When Heathrow opened in 1946, it handled 63,000 flights that year and by 1980 it handled the same amount in one day before lunch (4:04). The family is seen getting Katie’s passport and bags checked (5:16). The first Channel air service flew 60 years ago (6:11) and footage of an old plane which could only carry one passenger follows (6:19). By the 1930’s, twelve passengers could be taken (6:40). A shot of the inside of the plane draws on the notion flying was initially for the wealthy and carefree (6:45). As the family takes Katie to her flight, intermittent shots of celebrities and planes appear including the Beatles (7:02), Elizabeth Taylor (7:07) and Marilyn Monroe (7:13). Modern air travel commenced in the 40’s with the innovation of the jet engine (7:48). Old footage follows of a 32-seater airliner before its first public trial flight (7:54). The beginning of the 1950’s saw the addition of the British designed Comet (8:28) which was the first pure jet airliner. Although its speed was reputable, the Comet could only hold 44 passengers (9:22) and thirty years later it sits as a piece of history. A comparison is given of 250,000,000 tickets bought in 1952 (9:27) and 700,000,000 tickets purchased in 1980. The plane Katie is riding sat 500 passengers (9:52). Initially there was only once class of air travel, but by the 1960’s British Airways introduced lower fares (10:44). Freddie Laker, who was an English airline entrepreneur, invented ‘no frills flying’ in 1976 (11:02). Plane tickets managed to go down instead of up in the 80’s due to cost conscious flying and more efficient machines (12:16). On Katie’s flight, she is seen entering the cabin with pilots inside (12:48) and a span of the controls is given (13:14). Engine efficiency became vital to keep fuel costs down (13:17). A 747 with Rolls Royce engines is seen in the air (13:32) and footage of the Viking 30 years prior follows (13:37). Diagrams are given showing the Viking engine (13:50), the Comet’s engine (14:08) and the turbofan engine which used the least amount of fuel (14:37). One of air travel’s major issues engineers work on is noise (15:46). A 707 take off can be heard in a 50 square mile radius (15:59) whereas the Tristar could only be heard in a 7 square mile radius (16:05). In the smaller twin engine category, the new European Airbus was one of the quietest flying crafts (16:25). Safety tests are conducted to keep the droplets of fuel from igniting as they are thrown forward in quick stops (17:06). As the world was experiencing fuel shortages, alternatives such as coal (18:03), sugar (18:18) and hydrogen (18:33) were being studied. Engineers sought to make engines more fuel efficient to maintain plane ticket prices from rising (19:25). To do this, new wing designs were looked at (19:14) such as wing tip sails (21:71) and the British Aerospace designed wings on the European Airbus (21:51). Countries were forced to work together as the cost of this work was greater than what any one nation could afford (22:30). The Hawker Siddeley Executive Jet is shown which was specifically used for business travel (23:28) followed by small air taxis (23:44). Katie’s plane touches down in Australia (24:15) and from a boat she views the famed Sydney Opera house (26:23). The film draws to conclusion with the question of what will Katie’s generation be flying in in the next 60 years? (27:00). This is an Illustra Film (27:36) with Gary Watson as narrator.

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