Views of Boeing Y1B-17 bomber, parked at Boeing Company airfield, with its right engines running. Front view showing nose canopy, but no gun protruding. Radial engines equipped with three-bladed hamilton standard propellers. Air scoops atop each engine cowl. Rubber deicing boots on leading edges of flight surfaces. Twin pitot tubes on either side of nose. Tail wheel and conventional empennage. Rear view showing "blisters" on sides and top of fuselage. Gunner position shown in sides, but no guns protruding. Belly gunner "blister" is shown. The two left engines are started and the aircraft taxis and takes off. Two tall striped smoke stacks in background. View from another airplane of the Y1B-17 in flight. View from ground ot the bomber coming in on final approach and making a smooth three-point landing.
Various stages of manned flight are seen during history of flight. First a balloon with a passenger basket suspended below. Then a man is seen making a long flight in a glider from a high hillside. Men maneuver a Wright flyer on the ground. It is a 1910 model B, displaying number NR 14333 on its wing. Men turn the propellers to start the engine. Closeup of the engine. The first occupant is already seated in the airplane as the second walks around the right wing checking things. Closeup of Orville Wright. A Wright flyer taking off. The distance of the first successful flight by the Wright Brothers is illustrated by an animated representation of it over the wing of a 1950 era B-36 bomber.
Activities at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington DC, on Memorial Day, 1956. A sign on base gatehouse reads "Bolling Air Force Base". Numerous cars enter the base for the activities. Aircraft parked for static display at the Bolling Air Force Base. A C-119 aircraft on taxi strip. A large crowd of civilians walk among the aircraft. A line of visitors waits to board a B-36 bomber.They climb up a ramp set by the cockpit. A girl walks under the belly of the B-36. A sign by a jet aircraft identifies it as an F-101 Voodoo fighter.
German troops defending against allies, after the Normandy invasion. German antiaircraft crew firing at American bombers over German-occupied France, in World War 2. Destruction from Allied bombing. A wrecked French cathedral. Formations of U.S. B-17 bombers overhead. German antiircraft guns firing. One American bomber hit and falling. French civilians fleeing bombed area, with meager belongings. French emergency vehicles responding. burning wreckage of a downed B-17. Crosses and helmets mark graves of French soldiers. Allied flier POWs carrying their opened parachutes. Others being escorted to prison compound holding many American prisoners of war.Artwork decorating their lying jackets. One POW is from 101st Airborne Division. Waffen-SS General,Josef Dietrich, Commander,5th Panzer Army, consulting with field officers. German troops in camouflage, walk through woods. A huge explosion near the camera. Destroyed Allied armor. Knocked out M4 Sherman tank named "Pistolpackinmamma!"and one named "Blondie," and another,"Alice II."
Airborne invasion maneuvers by Allied paratroopers in south of England during World War II. Soldiers listen to the plans by their commanders and board C-47B aircraft. Armed paratroopers aboard the aircraft smoke cigarettes and talk. Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D Eisenhower and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill observe the paratroopers jumping from large formation of C-47B planes. Paratroopers make landing on ground. Map of Hitler's Europe with Allied paratroopers landing on it.
Opening scene shows ground crew loading bombs on a Martin B-26 Marauder aircraft of the USAAF 323rd Bombardment Group at Denain-Prouvy Airdrome, France (A-83) in World War 2. The aircraft is parked on pierced steel planking (Marsden Matting). Glimpse of aircrew members, carrying their parachutes, as they climb into the back of an open truck. Next, ground crewman steadies a bomb as another man operates controls to lower it from an M6 bomb service truck. Ground crewman screws fins on the bomb. View shifts to inside the truck carrying aircrew members, as more climb aboard it. Several crew members climb down from the truck, as it arrives at their aircraft. Others are seen already at their respective aircraft parked nearby. Rough slate identifies the airfield as A-83, and day as 22 April. An officer, bombardier, is seen strapping himself into the nose of a B-26. Bombardier makes adjustments to his bomb sight. Pilot and copilot close their respective canopies. Name: "Wild-Bill" seen painted below copilot's window.
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