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The Story of Naval Aviation (1961)

1961 · Short film · 28 min

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Synopsis

Dating to 1961, this U.S. Navy film celebrates fifty years of naval aviation (:10). It opens with footage of supersonic aircraft (:28) and the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (:42). Footage of the Wright Brothers’ first flight on December 17th, 1903 near Kitty Hawk follows (1:25). Captain Washington Irving Chambers (1:31) was to observe and report on aviation developments of Navy concern. In November of 1910, Eugene Ely flew his Curtiss aircraft (1:41) off the deck of the cruiser USS Birmingham. A photograph follows of another demonstration to land on the USS Pennsylvania (1:51). The Navy was allocated $25K for it's first land plane and two seaplanes (2:07). One of those seaplanes is seen (2:12) along with Lieutenant Theodore G. Ellyson whom had been trained by Glen Curtiss (2:12). In 1911, the Navy began training pilots at Annapolis, Maryland (2:23). An early trainee, Alfred A. Cunningham is seen at (2:32). Catapult experiments began in 1912 (2:37). In 1914, Admiral Patrick Bellinger (2:53) flew the first plane to be damaged in combat in Veracruz, Mexico. As WWI broke out (3:06), Navy aviation put it’s new developments to the test. The war effort produced nearly 3,000 aircrafts from Curtiss, Martin, Boeing and others (3:11). A German U-boat (3:26). Lt. Kenneth Whiting was a part of the first U.S. group to reach Europe (3:32). Aircraft take off for anti-submarine patrols to raid submarine pens in the North Sea (3:43). The Davis recoilless rifle (3:49). Commander John Towers…

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Details

Running time
28 minutes
Collection
Ephemeral Films

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