Aviation History

Read more …

A quick clip of the Wright Flyer during take-off.

Airships R80 and Roma – silent Pathe newsreel footage.

Akron, Ohio: Striking views of the official tests of the USS Macon, the largest airship in the world, just completed for the U.S. Navy. She is a sister ship of the wrecked Akron.” (some parts silent of this partial newsreel without narration)

Navy dirigible Akron crashed in the ocean near the New Jersey coast April 4, 1933, during a storm. Only 3 survived out of a crew of 76 men. (silent partial newsreel)

Franz Reichelt (1879 – 1912), an Australian tailor, had been experimenting with a new form of parachute, jumped from the first platform of the Eiffel Tower, 180 feet from the ground. The parachute did not open and Reichelt fell like a stone. His body was a shapeless mass when the police picked it up.February 4, 1912

In 1919 Charles Godefroy flew his Nieuport biplane through the Arc de Triomphe to mark the end of and honour those who fought in World War I.

Flying Boats”” (large seaplanes) were planned to connect the U.S. and China to access the “”fabulous markets”” of the latter in the 1930s. As it turned out, U.S.-China trade relations were largely delayed another half century.”

German Zeppelin attacks russian positions.This episode from the Russian historical detective mini series.”The Fall of the Empire” (Gibel imperii) (2005) (mini)Directed by Vladimir Khotinenko.This movie about fight of Military Counterintelligence of Russian empire against the German espionage during the First World War (ww1).

Amazing!! This film was made long before special-effects photography and I’m sure you will be impressed by the bravery of this barnstorming lass in her equestrian attire.

1937: The Luftschiffbau Zeppelin 129 Hindenburg. Almost unedited new color footage of the airship, including the Hindenburg burning.

1937-05-10 The Luftschiffbau Zeppelin 129 Hindenburg burning: unidentified color newsreel excerpt.