This 1960s era, color movie presented by Shell is designed to demonstrate how airplanes fly with specific attention paid to wing design and lift ratios for air pressure and speed. The movie opens with iconic images of a bird flying overhead. It is Larus argentatus or the Herring Gull. A Boeing 747 soars over the water. “How an Airplane Flies, a Shell film. Part one, Weight and Lift.” A small plane taxis to the runway 1:24. A Cessna 150 Aerobat with a wingspan of 32 ½ feet. The Cessna lifts off 2:00. An animation displays air pressures at sea level and above 2:40. Women walk down the street battling strong winds 3:30. The Cessna soars in the air 4:04. A man looks at a smoke tunnel machine and the camera turns it horizontally 5:03. The man inserts a cylinder into the smoke tunnel 5:20. The man takes a flat plate and inserts it into the smoke tunnel 5:45. Air is disrupted in the smoke tunnel when the flat plate is turned vertically 6:10. A curved plate is inserted into the smoke tunnel 6:40. A man inspects the wings of a Cessna to show the viewer it’s different shapes 7:35. A model of a wing is put into the smoke tunnel to show how smooth the air flows over and under the wing 8:13. The phenomenon of how air flows over the wing and lifts a plane into the air is demonstrated in the smoke tunnel 8:55. A new model of the wing is constructed with pinholes and connected to a manometer to measure air pressure 9:26. A woman drinks from a straw to demonstrate how air pressure works and then measured in a manometer 9:45. The manometer measures air pressure as the wing model is poised at different angles in the wind tunnel 10:32. An animation demonstrates how wind and air pressure hits the wing and accesses the lift force for the wing 10:55. A Cessna takes off from the runway 11:30. Simulated take off with the wing model in the wind tunnel is demonstrated 11:45. Lifting the wing too much in the air tunnel demonstrates how airflow will break up if the angle is too high 12:49. The Cessna demonstrates a stall in midair 13:20. An animation shows different angles of flight for the Cessna 13:50. Flaps are added to the wing model in the wind tunnel 15:14. The Cessna extends its flaps to illustrate how the plane can slow down and safely land 15:50. End of part one. Part Two Thrust and Drag. A girl swims in a pool 16 59. A jet taxis to the runway 17:33. Close-up on the Cessna’s propeller 18:20. An electrically driven propeller is put into the smoke tunnel 18:38. Trucks pass a car on a rainy highway 19:35. A disc is placed in front of the mouth of an open wind tunnel 20:07. A larger disc is placed in front of the wind tunnel 20:57. A jumbo jet comes in for landing 21:23. A bullet nose is added to the disc to demonstrate streamlining 21:48. Retractable landing gear is displayed to illustrate minimizing drag 22:50. A girl swims in a pool 23:35. Liquid is placed on a wing to show how the wind moves the liquid over the wing as it accelerates 24:15. Drag is illustrated in the wind tunnel 25:35. A boat skims across the water trailing a water skier 25:54. Cessna soars above the clouds 26:40. End of Part Two. Made by the Shell Film Unit. Flying by Ron Campbell and Neil Campbell. Photography by Alan Fabian. Assisted by Paul Kingsley and Mike Thomas. Assistant director Ron Hyde. Edited by Patricia Holland. Assisted by Chris Greenbury. Sound editor Nick Keen. Assisted by Martin Evans. Animation by Stuart Hardy Films. Technical advisors John Quick, Ron Campbell and David Clark. Produced and directed by Derek Armstrong. A Shell Film.

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