A guard outside Andrews Air Force Base near Morningside, Maryland. The seal of the President of the United States. Honor guard marches on the airfield. Civilian crowd stands behind fence waiting for United States President John F. Kennedy. Men disembark from a United States Marine Corps (USMC) helicopter. President Kennedy arrives on a United States Army helicopter. President Kennedy disembarks from the helicopter, walking toward Air Force One (VC-137C SAM 26000). The president is accompanied by assistants, and an unidentified woman as he boards Air Force One. Another man carrying a suitcase follows them. The air stair is pushed back. Air Force One aircraft taxiing and taking off from Andrews Air Force Base.
Air Force One aircraft (VC-137C SAM 26000) in Andrews Air Force Base near Morningside, Maryland. An air stair is moved to the aircraft. Men bring the body of President John F. Kennedy out of Air Force One, upon its arrival from Texas, following the assassination of President Kennedy. A hearse stops in front of the aircraft. Crowds watch the arrival of President Kennedy’s remains at Andrews Air Force Base. President Kennedy’s casket is loaded into the hearse. The hearse drives away, followed by staff car. Andrews Air Force Base at night. United States Navy personnel facing right. Crowds of journalists at Andrews Air Force Base.
An air stair moves toward Air Force One aircraft (VC-137C SAM 26000) at Andrews Air Force Base near Morningside, Maryland. The casket bearing the body of President John F. Kennedy is taken out of Air Force One. President Kennedy’s casket is loaded into the hearse. The hearse is followed by a group of staff cars. President Lyndon B. Johnson and First Lady Lady Bird Johnson stand at microphones to make comments to the press following the assassination of President Kennedy in Texas.
MB-1 rocket rail-launched from a U.S. Air Force F-102A Delta Dagger at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. Footage taken from GSAP (Gun Sight Aiming Point) camera mounted under right wing of F- 102 in flight. MB-1 rocket fired from rail launcher. Technicians work on F-102A parked outside a hangar. Two technicians wheel an MB-1 rocket on a dolly, underneath F- 102A parked on ramp. Three technicians check out and calibrate special instrumentation to be used during the test run. The instruments include different types of oscillographs, and photo panels. Special camera installations made on the F-102A vertical stabilizer, fuselage, and wings. Technician installs a l6mm camera inside the aircraft nose, then closes access panel. F-102A takes off. Radar vectoring station T-1 at Holloman AFB. Technician operates one of the tracking scanners installed on roof of building. Two men, inside the vectoring station, control the course of the test aircraft by radio communication from the vectoring machine plotting charts. The pilot in F-102A cockpit as he turns on the recording cameras to activate the armament system. MB-1 bomb extended below the aircraft. Engineer talks on the radio phone inside the vectoring station. Pilot's hand on the control stick as he activates the firing switch. MB-l rocket is fired from the short rail launcher. The aircraft is enveloped in a trail of white smoke. GSAP camera mounted underneath the right wing of the F-102A, shows the MB-l rocket being fired from the short rail launcher. Smoke due to the firing of the rocket.
Film shows test of SOC (Strategic Air Command) T.171/ A-5 Turret. View of Administration Building at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Project officer converses with Airmen. The Project officer signs paper. Airmen salute and leave the room. Board reads MacDill Air Force Base Home of Sixth Air Division. Another board reads 306th Bomb Wing, Headquarters with a crest. Boeing B-47 Stratojet bomber parked on ground. Airmen install turret to Boeing B-47 Stratojet bomber's tail. Airmen check radar unit of A-5 control system against ground target. Airmen load Gatling gun.
Frido W. Kessler and his rocket-propelled mail plane. (Allegedly, the first scheduled mail-delivery rocket flight) Kessler is seen in his workshop with his test stand and apparatus. Launch of Kessler's first winged liquid-fueled (liquid oxygen and Kerosene) mail rocket plane on frozen Greenwood Lake, New York, February 23,1936. Launch team opens the nose to insert mail into the rocket-propelled glider plane (reportedly designed by German rocket pioneer Dr. Willy Ley). Kessler poses with a little girl, Gloria Schleich Quackenbush, for whom the plane is named. She holds a silver cup of snow. They are surrounded by a cluster of men. Photographic equipment is set up next to them. The girl, Gloria, empties the cup of snow onto the tail of the rocket plane, to Christen it "Gloria (I)." Launch team fueling the rocket from containers. A technician in fireproof protective suit lights fuel at tail of the plane. It flares up in flames and then settles down with normal rocket burn, and leaves the launch stand. (A second rocket plane is seen sitting on the ice near the launch stand.) The rocket glider only goes about 20 feet before falling onto the ice. Team members look over the stand and prepare to try again with Kessler's second plane, the "Gloria (II)." They load the mail (6000 letters and postcards) into the nose and set the plane on the launch stand. It launches very nose high, and strikes the ice near the stand. But the rocket motor continues to propel it across the ice until it takes off again and continues, a way in the air until flipping over and crashing on the ice. View of people surrounding the broken plane on the ice. (Note: The second attempt carried the Gloria II and its mail, about 2000 feet, far enough to cross the border from New York into New Jersey, constituting an interstate mail delivery, and making the letters and post cards worthy mementos of the event.)
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