This silent film (originally released with a soundtrack that we don’t have, and apparently narrated by John Glenn) was made to profile Teledyne McCormick Selph and its plant at Hollister, California. McCormick Selph was an ordnance company with a strong reputation in the pyrotechnic escape systems products line. In other words, ejection seats and systems.
At :19 the sprawling facility at Hollister is shown. At :47 employees wearing clean room apparel work on electronic components. At :58 engineers review blueprints and draft plans. At 1:23 a helicopter crew escape system (then under development) is shown in operation. At 2:19 another helicopter system, with rotor ejection, is shown. At 3:48 an F-111 Aardvark is seen flying over the California desert. At 4:13 the crew escape capsule is shown during testing. At 5:23 the B-1 bomber prototype is shown and then the testing of the escape system for that aircraft. At 6:29 an inflatable ramp or escape slide is shown being deployed for passenger aircraft use. At 7:49 a water landing of a transport plane is shown in animation, showing how a raft would be deployed when it hits the water. At 8:55 a test of the raft system is shown. At 10:58 weapon store racks are shown dropping from an aircraft in combat conditions. At 11:10 a Huey Cobra attack helicopter is shown. At 11:29 a test of a device that would displace the helicopter’s windscreen in the event of an accident is shown. At 13:19 escape slides for large civilian aircraft are shown. At 13:54 a test of an explosive emergency exit is shown.
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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 and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
