Early history of flight footage: Hydro plane afloat on the Seine river, piloted by Collier in 1911. He stays airborne for several seconds. Takeoff of another hydroplane built by Gabriel Voison. Area where meeting was held of a group of engineers and pilots at Monaco in 1912. Takeoff of one of the aircraft via catapult into the Mediterranean Sea. Landing of another hydroplane and taxi up onto beach.
Early flight and historic aviation: Henri Farman, winner of race conducted with hydro plane aircraft. Scenes of the Aviette (Bicycle with wings) in operation circa 1912 (like an ornithopter but no flapping wings).
Kaiser Wilhelm II is seen looking through a telescope on the deck of his namesake pre-dreadnought warship (Linienschiff) the S.M. Wilhelm II, of the Imperial Germany Navy, circa 1912. Next to him is a Korvettenkapitän (three stripes insignia) who points out something to the Kaiser. The ship's captain (kapitän zur See) smiles for the camera as he leans over a railing while holding a spyglass (telescope). Smaller boats are seen anchored in a bay, in the background.
The airship LZ13 "Hansa," in July 1912, being backed out of her hangar in Hamburg and readied for flight by ground crews . Count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin seen with an officer of the crew, in the passenger compartment (called the "Coupé") of the LZ-13. View of the crowds below waving to the Count. A separate sequence, from June , 1909, shows the damaged airship, LZ 5, after she hit a pear tree near Göppingen, on the return leg of a flight from Lake Constance (Bodensee) to Bitterfeld and back.
Opening scenes show Maine-Class battleship underway, during a Naval Review in New York on October 14, 1912. The battleship is flying a huge American flag from her bow and a smaller one and a naval jack from her towers, plus a stream of nautical signal flags. She is firing a broadside salute as she passes the Yacht, USS Mayflower, which is flying the Presidential flag, indicating President Taft is aboard. Complete change of sequence shifts to U.S. Marines performing calisthenics on deck of a warship, as officers monitor them. Later, marines practice signalling on deck. One marine signals with a flag, as three others set up tripods with mirror signaling devices and proceed to transmit messages.
A huge crowd of soldiers gather on streets of Moscow, Russia, as pamphlets are distributed during Russian Civil War (also during time frame of World War 1). A soldier reads posters pasted on a wall. A huge crowd of soldiers gathers around, and many sit upon, the Statue of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich at Manege Square, Moscow. ( Note: The statue,by Pietro Canonica. Was erected in 1912 and destroyed in 1918.)