United States Air Force General Jack J. Catton on a walking tour of Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Vietnam. Staff cars drive past a sign that reads '600th Photo Squadron'. Cycles in the foreground. General Catton arrives at a building. General Catton and party reach a United States Air Force HH-43 B helicopter by cars. The HH-43 B and an AH-1G helicopters lift off. General Catton speaks to personnel and boards a United States Air Force C-141A aircraft. The aircraft taxis along a runway. (Vietnam War period).
U.S.Army Air Corps P-47s with engines running, taxiing our for takeoff. Army personnel in Runway control unit with signal light.(Few seconds of film reversed.) Among the aircraft seen is P-47D, number 42-28543 named “Pat” piloted by Capt. Gordon S Stevens,of Smithfield,North Carolina, of the 63rd Fighter Squadron, 56th Fighter Group, stationed in England.(He was killed in action, 18 September 1944.) Views of the P-47s enroute to join up with B-17 bomber formations. P-51s and P-38s taking off. P-51s inflight to relieve P-47s of escort duty.US pilot with mission profile inked on back of his hand. Narrator (Ronald Reagan?) describes the way successive relays of U.S. fighters relieved each other performing bomber escort duties. Scenes from captured German film shows alarm sounding and German fighter pilots scrambling in Me-109s and FW-190s to intercept the U.S. bombers. Escorting U.S. P-51s jettison their long range drop tanks preparing to meet attacking German interceptors. Gun camera footage shows many German fighters being destroyed.P-47s, P-51s and P-38s firing their guns. Several Me-109s in formation. German gun camera clip showing many B-17s being shot to pieces by 22mm gunfire and falling, often in flames.
Documentary film 'The Jet Engines' about the develpment of an American jet airplane, with help of the British who provide General Electric Company with a prototype engine developed by British RAF Group Captain Frank Whittle. A B-17 aircraft taxis and takes off from the runway. Vehicles carry U.S. Air Forces officers and civilian engineers to an airfield where a man stands with a gun next to a U.S. Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft. The visitors look at cargo containers being offloaded from the aircraft. They contain a prototype British Whittle turbojet engine. Scene shifts to meeting of executives of the General Electric Company with U.S. Army Air Forces officers. They look at schematic of the Whittle engine. GE officials commit to building an American turbojet engine to power U.S. Air Forces airplanes.
Animated illustration of rapid improvements in GE jet engine designs. Views of the GE plant at Lockland, Ohio. Interior of a jet passenger liner airplane, as envisioned in 1951. View of flight attendant or stewardess in uniform, delivering tray of food to a passenger in the cabin of a passenger aircraft in flight. View of Dr. Sanford A. Moss, standing in front of the Collier Trophy, looking at his award certificate, in 1941. The trophy was awarded to him and the U.S. Army Air Corps for development of the aircraft engine supercharger. Discussion of Atomic Energy Commission, U.S. Air Force, General Electric and Convair ideas about building an atomic powered airplane. Views of the GE gas turbine laboratory. Montage of jet aircraft of the early 1950s. Among those seen are: Convair SF-92 delta wing fighter plane; The Chase XCG-20A 4-engine cargo plane; North American F-86 sabrejet; Grumman F9F panther; F-89 Scorpion; and B-36 bomber, plus several unidentified experimental aircraft. Several scenes of B-47s in rocket assisted takeoffs.
The commissioning ceremony of USS Saratoga in New York, United States. A large crowd seated on the ship deck during the ceremony. A model of USS Saratoga placed on a stand. Chief Warrant Officer Moses and other naval officers speak into microphone. A large silver cup on a table. Captain Robert Joseph Stroh speaks into the microphone. U.S. Navy Admiral Felix B. Stump, Admiral W F Halsey, Admiral Doil, Rear Admiral A. J. Mumma, Rear Admiral R. J. Cowdrey and Vice Admiral M. B. Gardener stand holding their hats. Naval officers go down one of the deck edge elevators.
D-Day minus 1 (June 5, 1944) U.S. Invasion craft jammed into harbor at Weymouth, England, the day before D-day, during World War 2. Troops sitting on deck of LSI(L) 88, drinking coffee and playing dice game. One soldier looking through binoculars, at an English woman,in doorway of her flat, who is looking back through her binoculars. Several other women in the flat complex are hanging laundry out to dry.The American soldier cups his hands and tries to call out to the woman.One of his friends joins in the fun. Scene shifts to Formation of U.S. B-26 bombers in flight. A city is viewed from a bomber, with smoke rising from bomb bursts. Formation of U.S. B-17 bombers escorted by P-47 fighters. Scene shifts back to troops at port of embarkation, where large group is seen at a Catholic mass being held on a pier by U.S. chaplain.LCI(L)s numbers 49, 89, and 93, are seen tied up in background. A U.S.Coast Guard officer briefs his crewmen. Several of the invasion fleet ships begin moving out of the harbor. A U.S. Navy Captain, conversing with Major General Clarence R. Huebner, Commander, U.S. 1st Infantry Division, on deck of a ship. Buckley-Class Destroyer escort, in camouflage paint, is seen with other other escorting warships. Barrage Balloons fly aloft. View from LCI(L) departing pier in Weymouth. Several others preparing to depart as well. LCI(L) 498 is seen closeby. Columns of invasion craft underway. Captain Miles Imlay,USCG, deputy commander, Assault Group O-1, and Commander of Flotilla 10, on the bridge of his flagship, LCI(L) 87. The U.S. Attack transport USS Samuel Chase (APA-26) is seen. Soldiers loading rounds into an ammunition belt. Crew members on an invasion ship man an antiaircraft gun (as friendly aircraft fly overhead). An 83-ft Coast Guard rescue cutter. U.S. Battleships. Soldiers napping on deck of the USS Samuel Chase. Below decks, a Coast Guard Commander joins others being briefed with help of a mockup of the Normandy coastline.
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