United Airlines DC-3 Mainliner aircraft lands and taxis to the airfield ramp,at Oakland, California. U.S. military and civilian officials, and newsmen gather around the airplane as its doors open. A crowd of spectators and well-wishers fill an area at the airfield terminal. Closeup of three Soviet flyers, standing and waving from the top of stairs at the plane's door. They are Pilot Valery Chkalov; Co-pilot Georgy Baydukov and Navigator Alexander Belyakov. They left Moscow, Russia, June 18, 1937 in a single-engine Soviet Tupolev ANT-25 aircraft on a flight over the North Pole and finally landed after 63 hours and 25 minutes, at. the U.S. Army Pearson Field in Fort Vancouver Barracks (Washington State, USA). Scene shifts to Pearson Field, where their airplane is being prepared for shipment back to Russia. U.S. Army soldiers package up recording instruments preserving evidence of the flight necessary to document their accomplishment. They remove and package loose articles, such as parachutes. View of the airplane being completely covered in protective tarp wrappings.
U.S. Army trucks of the 1919 motor transport convoy drive past a moving trolley car on a street in Oakland, California. Spectators gather along side of street at ferry slip to watch as convoy trucks board a ferry boat for trip to San Francisco. Several men watch from upper deck of the ferry. A boy with a bicycle watches from beside a fence. View from upper deck of the ferry boat, of trucks driving aboard. A line of civilian cars sits to the side as the army vehicles drive aboard. View from the ferry boat underway in San Francisco harbor. Next, the convoy is seen driving along street in San Francisco, on September 7, 1919. The Mayor of San Francisco, James Rolph Jr., conversing with officers of the convoy, as they stand on a flag wrapped stand during a formal greeting ceremony. More views of convoy trucks in the city and lined up on hill overlooking San Francisco Bay.
Chief of U.S. Army Air Service, Major General Patrick, stands between Navigator, Lt. Albert F. Hegenberger and Pilot, Lt. Lester J. Maitland as they are about to depart on their record-setting transpacific flight from California to Hawaii. Animation illustrates their route of flight from Oakland Airport to Honolulu,Hawaii, the longest flight ever attempted (2400 miles). Several views of their Fokker C-2 Trimotor aircraft called "Bird of Paradise,"in flight.
Amelia Earhart and her crew take off from the U.S. Naval Air Station, Oakland, California, to begin their flight around the world. Views from another aircraft as their Lockheed Electra flies low over Western Span of the Bay Bridge and San Francisco, heading West toward the Pacific Ocean. Scene on the ground, several days earlier, Paul Mantz and Amelia Earhart Putnam converse, as he secures a dzuz fastener on the aircraft fuselage. Mechanic Bo McKneely helps Earhart step from the wing of the airplane. She talks with husband, George P. Putnam. Paul Mantz, talks with Earhart and George Putnam while Bo McKneely refuels the Lockheed Electra. In final scenes, ground crew pushes the Lockheed Electra into a Hangar at the Naval Air Station.
College students from the University of California Bears crew team begin training in hopes of winning the 1939 rowing championships. California oarsmen in Oakland turnout for the spring training. Ten shells get underway for vigorous practice on Frisco Bay. Crew teams rowing on the bay.
Opening scene shows several aircraft and aircrews on an Airfield in Oakland, California, readying for the Dole Air Race to Hawaii. A modified Travel Air 5000 aircraft, NX869, named "Woolaroc," is seen in the near foreground. Behind it is another Travel Air 5000, named "Oklahoma." Next, the "Oklahoma" and the "Aloha"(NX914), a Breese-Wilde 5 Monoplane are seen with engines running and taxiing. The "Aloha" takes off and climbs sharply after gaining airspeed. Several Wickes-class destroyers are seen steaming underway. (Slate reports they patrol the course to be flown over the Pacific.) Scene shifts to wreckage of the "Angel of Los Angeles" a twin engine Bryant Monoplane, which crashed on a test flight at Montebello, California. (Pilot, Arthur V. Rogers, bailed out at the last minute but his parachute didn't fully open and he was killed.) Next is shown the wreckage of the "Pride of Los Angeles," an International CF-10 Triplane, after crashing into San Francisco Bay on August 11th. Pilots J. L. Giffin and Theodore S. Lundgren are seen stepping from the water, unhurt. A crane, on a barge, lifts the wreckage from the shallow water.
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