Made by 20th Century Fox as part of their “Adventures of the Newsreel Cameramen” series, this black & white film contains spectacular footage of early 20th Century aviation, while showcasing the newsreel cameramen who documented pilots and planes. Copyright is 1936, produced by Truman Talley and edited by Lew Lehr.
Opening titles: Adventures of the Newsreel Cameraman – Scouring the Skies! (:07-:43). Army maneuvers in the clouds. Boeing P-26 “Peashooter” planes are shown — the first American production all-metal fighter aircraft and the first pursuit monoplane to enter squadron service with the United States Army Air Corps. They fly by the camera in formation. Douglas B-18 Bolo bombers are shown flying over Yosemite Valley. Stunt pilots perform a smokescreen maneuver at the Miami airport (:44-1:56). Paratroopers jump out of planes over Roosevelt Field. German pilot and aerobatic champion Gerd Achgelis is shown taking off in his Olympic biplane. The plane flies inverted at extremely low level, terrifyingly close to the ground (1:57-3:28). Pan Am China Clipper, a Martin M-130 four-engine flying boat. The plane heads to the Pacific from San Francisco en route to the Philippines . Over Manilla, the plane is filmed as it lands in Manila Bay. (4:25) Miami, Florida, a small plane lands on the ground, and it turns out it’s a radio controlled model plane being played with by children. Model airplane meet. The Burnelli UB-14, also known as the Cunliffe-Owen Clyde Clipper, is shown at (4:43). This was a 1930s prototype lifting-fuselage airliner designed and built by Vincent Burnelli. It takes off into the air and at (5:00) flies over Manhattan. At (5:09) a Mignet HM.14 Flying Flea is shown, designed by French radio engineer Henri Mignet. At (5:31) the Waterman Arrowbile is shown. This was a tailless, two-seat, single-engine, pusher configuration roadable aircraft built in the US in the late 1930s. (5:50) Kellett K-3 Autogiro commuter plane/helicopter hybrid. Auto-gyro goes to the post office. Now, spectacular stunts and crashes. Stunt pilot fearless Frank Frakes deliberately crashes his biplane into a lake and survives. (6:41). He crashes a biplane into the ground (note the ad for the Edwards Hotel on the side of the plane!) Frakes crashes his plane into a house as part of a stunt show, the plane bursts into flames, but all is well. (7:29) At an air pageant in England, a biplane pilot loses control and crashes right in front of the Royal Box, but everyone is okay. (7:37) Francesco de Pinedo, Italian aviator, is killed when his plane crashed on takeoff from Floyd Bennett Field in New York City, before hundreds of spectators. Newsreel has never filmed a greater tragedy (6:48-8:13). On June 22, 1935 George and Alfred de Monteverde in the Bellanca monoplane Francesco de Pinedo attempted a flight across the Atlantic from Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn to Rome The heavily laden plane lumbered down the runway never getting more than three feet off the ground. It overshot the runway and crashed on Flatbush Ave. The fliers were unhurt but the plane was damaged and the flight was abandoned. Planes fly in the sky. Man has conquered the skies (8:14-9:21) End credits (9:22-9:28).
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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, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
