U.S. tank crews and support personnel on demonstration maneuvers in desert terrain. Support truck and personnel respond to tank out of fuel. They throw fuel cans down from truck and tank crew refuels from jerry cans using tank-installed hand-pump. After refueling, the tank moves out.
American aviation pioneer Glenn Hammond Curtiss sits at the controls of his first aircraft. Two mechanics assist in starting the engines. The first Curtiss aircraft takes off. Louis Bleriot, who was the first to fly across the English Channel, sits at the control of his aircraft in France. Lincoln Beachey, the first man to perform aerobatics in an airplane, dives his first aircraft which is a Curtiss model. Spectators are lined at a fence and watch him flying.
The Liberty L-12 engine. Scenes of its manufacture in American war plants. U.S. Air Service crews training in DeHavilland DH-4 aircraft. An airplane falling and crashed, with wreckage seen on ground. Head of the U.S. Army Air Service, General Patrick, and General Billy Mitchell, presenting medals to Captain Eddie Rickenbacker and other fliers of the U.S. Army 94th Aero Squadron, in France, during World War 1.
Shows several aviation "firsts" accomplished by U.S. Army Air Service aviators in the period from 1918 through 1924. A close formation of biplanes in flight. President and Mrs. Woodrow Wilson chat with Major Fleet, Officer in charge, on the occasion of the first air mail flight, inaugurated on May 15,1918 between Washington DC and New York.The mail is loaded into the Curtis JN-4 aircraft. Pilot in the cockpit. The aircraft takes off and in flight. Air Service. Mention of aviators helping spot forest fires. Smoke rising from forest fires and mountain ranges. In 1920, U.S. Army Captain St. Clair Streett is seen with some of his Squadron who flew four De Havilland DH-4 aircraft 9,000 miles, from New York City to Nome, Alaska. Two of the men play with pet dogs. Their itinerary is painted on the side of one of the aircraft, along with the names of pilot and mechanic (C.E. Crumline and J.E. Long). In 1923 the first non stop coast-to-coast flight was made in the Fokker T-2 aircraft. . A sign on the aircraft reads 'Army Air Service non stop coast to coast'.First Lieutenants Oakley O.Kelly and John A. Macready board the aircraft, at Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York, on May 2, 1923. Their Fokker T-2 in flight. Their arrival at Rockwell Field, on Coronado Island (San Diego) California. In 1924, Lt. Russell Maughan is seen boarding his P-1 Hawk airplane at Mitchel Field, on Long Island, New York, and taking off , bound for Crissy Field at the Presidio, San Francisco, California. His goal is the first dawn-to-dusk, coast-to-coast flight. Views of his P-1 Hawk airplane flying over Manhattan, New York City.
Views of U.S. Army Air Service Lieutenant James Doolittle, winner of the Schneider Cup Race, and of his Curtiss R3C-2 airplane equipped with floats. Brief view of Lieutenant Cyrus Bettis, climbing out of his R3C racing airplane, after winning the Pulitzer Trophy.
Glimpses of airplanes and crews that made the Pan American Goodwill flight that covered 22,000 miles to 21 Central and South American nations, in 1926. Aerial view of hangars and runway at kelly Air Base, Texas, as one of the five Loening OA-1 Amphibious aircraft takes off from the runway on Dec. 21, 1926.The five aircraft seen in flight over a city, are: The New York, with crew: Maj. Herbert Dargue and Lt. Ennis Whitehead; The San Antonio with crew: Capt. Arthur McDaniel and Lt. Charles Robinson; The San Francisco with crew: Capt. Ira Eaker and Lt. Muir Fairchild; The Detroit, with crew: Capt. Clinton Woolsey and Lt. John Benton; and The St. Louis, with crew: Lt. Bernard Thompson and Lt. Leonard Weddington. President Coolidge presenting the pilots with with citations for the Distinguished Flying Cross at Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., on May 2, 1927, at the opening of the Pan American Air Commission Conference.
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