HISTORY OF NAVAL AVIATION Part 1

Description

Navy bombers patrol the Atlantic. Cadets march to classes at the Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Shows Roy Knabenshue in a controlled-balloon flight; a hydroplane towing a glider into the air; a Curtiss plane landing; a World War I hydroplane being pushed into the water, armed, and taken off on patrol; Lt. J.H. Tower's takeoff (1919) in a seaplane for a trans-Atlantic flight; NC-4 seaplanes landing off Plymouth, England, and Cmdr. A.C. Read being received by the Lord Mayor; Lt. John Rodgers taking off (1925) in a seaplane and landing in the Hawaiian Islands; the testing of early catapults; takeoffs from an improvised flight deck on a battleship; land tests of various devices to brake landing speeds; landings (including crashes) in 1922 by Godfrey Chevalier and others on the carrier Langley as various braking techniques are tested; Navy aerial gunnery and aerodynamics classes in 1924; early Navy blimps; Adm. W.A. Moffett, H.D. Wylie, and C.E. Rosenthal; a fighter plane hooking onto an airship (airborne hangar), dropping from the hook, and diving; the Navy's first fighter squadron, Marine Corps-manned Curtiss "Helldivers," peeling off and dive bombing a ship during a test; torpedo planes from the Langley practicing; takeoffs and landings on the Saratoga and Lexington after their conversion to aircraft carriers in the early 1930's; and modern fighter planes and patrol bombers in the air.

Collection

General Records of the Department of the Navy

Series

Navy Motion Picture Film Productions