Point of view shot out the front of a steam locomotive railroad train as it speeds along a track in western United States. Men stacking wood lumber for boat shipment beside a canal in the early 1900s. The mill and stacks of lumber seen across the canal. Miners at a coal mine ride an open car full of coal as it emerges from a mine in West Virginia, as seen from camera riding on same coal car. Glimpse, from a passing train, of a steel mill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Immigrants to the United States, from various European countries, at work in industrial production jobs. Men in factories; working at a power forge in a steel mill; Lumber operations: Men cutting down large trees with hand axes and sawing logs for timber in a forest, using large 2-man saws; Butchers moving sides of beef in a meat packing company. Women working in a metal parts factory (appears to be a sink faucet manufacturing company); women working in a textile spinning mill operation and stacking moving machine shelves with spools. A hose set up from a fire hydrant spraying water in a city street and children in bathing suits running underneath to play and cool off in hot summer weather. Montage of various still and moving images: Immigrant children in classrooms and in school yards. A woman instructing new adult immigrants in an English language instruction class. Immigrant workers engaged in skyscraper construction, high in the air without safety equipment. An iron worker perched atop a vertical steel beam with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background. A woman posing on a horizontal bar. Men and women posing in the surf at a beach. People at beach watching as a group of men create a human pyramid on the sand. A little girl with her feet in the surf. Boys in a classroom, with two of them dirty from work and another boy sleeping with his head on his desk. Mothers and fathers at home asking about what the children learned in school. A young girl leading a group of school children in reciting the pledge of allegiance (pre-1950s version of the Pledge of Allegiance is heard recited by a group of children, without the "Under God" wording that was added in 1954). Still image of a young girl employed in a fabric mill (child labor).
World War II scenes of German Stuka dive bombers in operation. U.S. B-25 bomber in flight, and views of firestorms from Allied incendiary bombing of Axis targets. Scenes of the "Operation Firestop" project in 1954-55, in California. U.S. Forest Service and other agencies cooperate in a one-year project headquartered at Camp Pendleton, California. Aerial views of Camp Pendleton area, in Southern California. A modified Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bomber in flight discharges water from its torpedo bays. Men installing fabric water container into the bomb bay of the TBM. The aircraft seen in low level pass, dropping water contents onto field. Cropduster pilot Floyd Nolta, seen flying his Stearman biplane over California landscape, and then taxiing in to park, after landing. On the ground, we see how he modified his airplane to release water from a hopper in its bottom. On August 13, Vance Nolta flies the Stearman on multiple sorties, dropping water on a fire in the Mendecino Forest. Nolta filling his water tank from a hose at Willow Airport, and dropping water from the air, above the fire. View at Willow Airport, of 7 Stearman and N3N airplanes modified for aerial firefighting. Views of these aircraft dropping chemically treated water from the air. TBM aircraft equipped with 400 gallon tanks drop water from the air. PBY flying boat seen in flight. A B-26 bomber passing low and dropping chemically treated water. A U.S. Navy Martin Mars flying boat passing overhead. The aircraft drops water from a 7000 gallon tank.
Restrospective of the 1954 search for a suitable site for U.S. Air Force testing of ballistic missiles. Coastal area with ocean in the background. Officials look over charts, maps, photographs as they select the site for Vandenberg Air Force Base. In January, 1958, view of building with a sign that reads ' Headquarters, First Missile Division, Strategic Air Command, Vandenberg Air Force Base' Entrance of the headquarters as Major General David Wade walks out. U.S. Air Force officers and airmen attend missile training classes. Airmen work on assembly of Thor missiles . U.S. Air Force officers and airmen operate missile launch consoles in a launch control center. November, 1958, Thor intermediate range missile on a trailer being delivered to Vandenberg Air Force Base. Trailer backs up to the launch pad. December, 16, 1958, the Thor missile on launch pad venting gases. U.S. Air Forces officers at a launch console. The Thor missile is launched. RAF airmen watch missile in flight.
The Bell XV-3 (Bell 200) tiltrotor aircraft, s/n 54-147, is tested in Hurst, Texas on August 11, 1954. This was the first of what would become a long line of Bell 'Osprey' tiltrotor planes. Bell Chief Test Pilot Floyd Carlson sits in the cockpit of the XV-3, also known as the "Convertiplane." Another man stands beside the cockpit and talks to Carlson. Wide shot shows the XV-3 hovering in front of the Bell Aircraft Corp. building. Three blade rotors mounted on the ends of the wing.
Closeup of a freighter steaming past the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor. Sailors riding on a commercial bus near the entrance to the U.S. Naval Base, Norfolk, Virginia. Traffic at the road intersection. Entrance sign identifying the U.S. Navy base. Views of ships docked at the base. Flags flying outside the Headquarters of NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT). View of the great map room inside the headquarters. Officers from various NATO countries seated for a briefing conducted by A U.S. Navy Captain circa 1954. The most senior officers, including the first SACLANT, Admiral Lynde D. McCormick, step close to the map, where he speaks to the briefing officer. Closeup of the briefing officer moving images of aircraft over the map in the vicinity of the Portuguese Azore Islands. Closeup of straits of Gibraltar and then of Brest and Cherbourg on the coast of France; the Western approaches to the British Isles; the Norwegian coast; Iceland; Northern Labrador; the whole seaboard of Canada and the United States. View of waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Glimpse back to Admiral McCormick at the briefing map and then to a partially submerged submarine moving in water of the Atlantic. Narrator mentions subs of the 1960s. U.S. nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine launches a polaris missile. Final view of briefing map.
Bell X-1A in United States. B-29 Superfortress taxis and takes off. B-29, F-86 Sabre Jet and T-33 Canadair chase a plane in flight. B-29 in flight. The Bell X-1A is suspended from the fuselage of B-29. Bell X-1A detaches from the B-29. X-1A in flight. It lands on a dry lake bed. B-29 fly over the X-1A. X-1A lands and taxis. A car and cameramen on a port. The nose and cockpit of X-1A. Pilot Major Charles Yeager (Chuck Yeager) climbs out of X-1A after landing. Lawrence Bell, president of the Bell Aircraft Corporation and Major Yeager stand on the nose of X-1A. Mr. Bell congratulates Major Yeager.