View of a book entitled "Builders of Hawaii." A hand opens it to several different places, revealing photos of persons who played roles in the early development of Hawaii. Also revealed are pages from the newspaper "Commercial Advertiser" reporting that flags changed as "Hawaii becomes the first outpost of Greater America" and "Old Glory is the new flag of the Hawaiian Islands." (This refers to the establishment of the Territory of Hawaii, under the U.S. Hawaiian Organic Act of 1900.) A portrait of Sanford Ballard Dole is shown. (He was the President of the Republic of Hawaii, 1894-1900, and its first Territorial Governor, 1900-1903.) Views of the Hawaiian State Archives Building, on the grounds of the Iolani Palace, in Honolulu. A plaque honoring Captain James Cook. Views of visitors inside an exhibit that includes a reproduction of an early Hawaiian cottage.
History of aviation. A balloon in flight. Historic glider such as that which interested U.S. War Department as early as 1898. In 1903, a crew of men moving a Wright Flyer into position. Two men turn over propellers on a Wright Flyer, and the engine starts. View of the Wright-designed water-cooled engine. View of Orville Wright. The famous first powered flight, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, with Orville Wright at controls. Animation shows that 120 foot flight juxtaposed against a B-36 wing. Wilbur Wright in Europe, in 1908, gesturing as he converses with interested parties. A gallery of spectators including the President of France, King of England, King of Spain, and King of Italy. Wilbur Wright places a wheel under the right wing of a Wright Flyer and lashes it to the strut. A team of horses pulls the plane across the field. Men maneuver the plane onto a monorail on the ground. Men pull on a heavy rope to raise a weight in a tower, for a catapult. Two men spin the propellers and the Wright Brothers airplane motor starts. Wilbur Wright and his passenger, a French journalist, board the plane. The catapult weight drops, launching the aircraft which flies low over the field. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt speaking (He is seen on a podium campaigning for the Bull Moose Party nomination at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson, Kansas on September 22, 1912.) War department issues specifications for a heavier-than-air craft. Reenactment of a Wright brother signing a bid contract. A Wright Flyer airborne at Fort Myer, Virginia, as the Wrights meet the Army specifications and sell, U.S. Army airplane number 1, to the War Department, in 1908. Gold Aviator wings being pinned on the uniform of a U.S. Army pilot. Photograph of Army Air Forces Chief, General Henry (Hap) Arnold, wearing his original aviator wings on his service uniform. A Glenn Curtis training airplane starting up and taking off. View of a DH-4 airplane and a Wright Flyer taking off together.
Views of Cornell University where mechanical engineer, Stanford Moss, conducted research into gas turbines as part of his doctoral thesis work in 1903. Dr. Moss later joined the staff of General Electric Company. During World War I Dr. Moss is called to Washington DC to discuss, with the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA), development of a turbo supercharger for airplane engines. View of a biplane with turbo supercharger mounted on top of radial engine. Animated diagram illustrating workings of a turbo supercharger. Using a supercharged engine, the U.S. Army Air Services established an altitude record of 36 thousand feet. (The pilot, flying without supplemental oxygen, passes out and doesn't regain consciousness until the airplane has fallen about 30 thousand feet.)
A man poses looking at the Chittenden bridge crossing the Yellowstone River, in 1917. (Note: The bridge, a few miles south of Canyon Junction, was built in 1903 under the supervision of Hiram Martin Chittenden, the Seattle district engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers, and originally referred to simply as the Melan arch bridge. It was later renamed in Chittenden's honor. It was replaced in 1962 with the Chittenden Memorial bridge.)
A film 'We saw it happen' about the history of aviation in the United States. In Dayton, Ohio: Houses seen along Hawthorn Street. A still picture shows the Wright brothers in their youth. View down Hawthorn Street with several 1940s and early 1950s cars parked along the Dayton street. Exterior view of 7 Hawthorn Street, home of the Wright Brothers. Interiors of the Wright home in Dayton. The workshop of the Wright brothers. Machines in the workshop. The "Wright Cycle Co" and Wright Museum (moved from Dayton to Greenfield village in Dearborn, Michigan.) A powered engine prepared in the workshop. Sweeping view of windswept beach area of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina where the Wright brothers conducted test flights in 1900-1902. Another view of Hawthorn Street in Dayton. A boy on the sidewalk. View of the 4 cylinder airplane engine first designed by the Wright Brothers. Narrator speaks of December 17, 1903 Wright Brothers flight. View of the Wright Flyer in flight overhead. Scene changes to aerial side view of Boeing B-52 Stratofortress aircraft in flight (this is aircraft YB-52,the second XB-52). The B-52 banks left and away.
Views of traffic on a city street around the turn of the 20th century. A mix of horse and buggies and motorcars and bicycles. People waiting for a trolley car. Reenactment of persons using an early telephone and of early filmmakers at work with camera on motion picture film. The Wright brothers home at 7 Hawthorne Street, West Dayton, Ohio. The Wrights' former housekeeper, Carrie Grumbach, recalls December 17, 1903, a telegram arriving about the Wright brothers successful first powered flight. Glimpse of Wright brothers machine shop. Charlie Taylor, who had worked in their shop, speaks of being pleased at their accomplishment. View of the Wrights flying gliders at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Charlie Taylor describing how he machined and built the motor for the Wright brothers airplane. Glimpse of that motor or a facsimile. Men positioning the Wright brothers airplane for launching, and French citizens gathered to watch a demonstration of their airplane in France. French aviation pioneer, Henri Farman with two other men in his Voisin-Farman I airplane. They begin takeoff. Closeup of Brazilian aviation pioneer, Alberto Santos-Dumont. Other early aircraft in flight. A Wright Flyer passing over the Fort Myer drill ground in Virginia. An Army balloon in the background. Retired United States Air Force Brigadier General, Frank P. Lahm, walks across the tarmac on an airport and speaks for interviewer (unseen). He speaks about the difficulty the Wright brothers had in convincing the U.S. Army of the value of their airplane. He tells that in December, 1907, Wilbur Wright was finally granted an interview with the Board of Ordnance and Fortifications, which led to a contract, in 1908, with the Signal Corps. Moving imagesof Orville Wright and assistants bringing a Wright Flyer to Fort Myer, Virginia, to conduct flight trials for the Army. Views of the airplane being flown all around the area, watched by spectators. (This footage is a mix of 1909 footage where the aircraft shows two half-rounds of canvas in the front elevator, and 1908 footage, taking off and flying, where the aircraft has a single half-round of canvas in the front elevator.) After landing on the 9th of September, 1908, then, Lieutenant Lahm, accepts Orville Wright's offer to fly with him. Lahm climbs aboard the airplane, sits next to Orville Wright, and they are seen taking off and flying about for six minutes and forty seconds. (Lahm is the first. military officer to ever fly in an airplane.) The next scene shows the wreck of a Wright Flyer, in which Army Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge was killed and Orville Wright injured, on September 17, 1908.