‘Conquest of the Air’ is a short film which follows around a Movietone newsreel cameraman on film assignments to capture various plane stunts and flights. The first assignment takes the cameraman into the cockpit of an Army plane (1:02) from which the other U.S. Army biplanes are seen flying in formation (1:02). These planes were to fly to Hawaii for an air circus (1:30) and they are filmed as they move over the newsreel cameraman’s plane (1:40) and as they land in Waikiki Beach. The world’s fastest planes, of the time, are caught on film at the National Air Races in Cleveland next (2:10) including the GeeBee (2:26). The record breaker of the race is captured at (2:28). In Tempelhof, Germany stunt flying is the next assignment with a slow barrel roll of Ernst Udet’s plane filmed (2:37). From inside of U.S. Army Air Force bomber plane, probably Keystone bombers, the cameraman shows shots of bombs (2:56) and these explosives then being dropped (3:00). As they miss the target ship on the first hit (3:26), the planes move back around for a second which lands on the target (3:38). At (3:55), a World War I movie set is shown with biplanes engaged in a bombing raid. Scenic shots of mountain ranges follow (4:16) including the summit of Mt. Kenya (4:21). Shots of an autogiro over Niagara Falls (4:40) and the Grand Canyon in Colorado (4:58) lead into another formation of Army planes (5:03). Through a hole in the floor of the plane, an aerial view of New York City is captured (5:17) including the Empire State Building (5:42). Parachute jumpers are seen loading into a plane (5:52), probably a Sikorsky S-29-A,m and once in the air, all twenty of them jump (6:11). A new idea of parachute jumping with a chair is depicted (6:51). Slow motion footage of two jumping at once follow (7:07). Some flight mishaps are recorded next including a collapsible plane they fail to take off (7:21), the ‘human bird’ (7:30), and a flying windmill (7:45) which also does not fly well. Crashes and disasters are looked at next (8:07) and this includes one of a pair of sky rider’s nose diving and crashing (9:00), a glider whose controls fail before take off (9:25) and the Lougheed-developed Olympic Alcor Duo-4 plane which takes out the cameras of other cameramen during a failed takeoff at Muroc (9:54).

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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