Brigadier General Billy Mitchell taxis in a Boeing Model 15 ( or a Curtis P-1Hawk) airplane, after landing at an airfield. . Battle ships underway at sea. Mitchell organizes 1st provisional Air Brigade for bombing demonstration against battleship target.. Crews and airplanes train and prepare at Langley Field, Virginia. Soldiers load bombs under plane wings. Planes take off to bomb the obsolete U.S. battleship USS Alabama. View from airplane in flight as it drops phosphorus bomb on the Alabama. View from water as bomb strikes with huge explosion. Armorers prepare heavier bombs for the next demonstration. Planes take off and bomb the USS Alabama again. General Mitchell crouched down beside a bomb loaded on an airplane for new tests in 1923. General Pershing, Admiral Shoemaker, Assistant Secretary of War, Davis, and General Patrick on deck of the Ship, USS St. Mihiel (AP-32) to observe the tests. Views of planes dropping bombs on Battleship USS Virginia and the ship rolling over and sinking. Large formations of 1920s era Air Service aircraft in flight.
Mid air refueling experiments in January, 1929. A U.S. Army Air Service Douglas C-1 tanker plane, with hose trailing below it, flies above a modified Atlantic-Fokker C-2A named "Question Mark." The hose is let down to the Question Mark, where a crew member seizes it and makes a connection for fuel transfer. After transfer of fuel is complete, the crew member throws the fuel line off and it is retrieved by the tanker plane. The Question Mark lands at Metropolitan Airport, Van Nuys, California on January 7, 1929, and taxiis in to park. The crew members, including Major Carl A. Spaatz, Captain Ira C. Eaker, Lieutenant Harry A. Halverson, Lieutenant Elwood R.(Pete) Quesada, and Staff Sergeant Roy W. Hooe, all exit the airplane and gather under the wing with well wishers. The five crew members pose for photographs beside their airplane, the "Question Mark." Ground crew tows the aircraft with a tractor.
C-130 aircraft with opened cargo hatch and supplies being loaded. A C-130 cargo plane taxies and another one takes off in the background. U.S. troops march on airfield. U.S. Air Force personnel help a Catholic Priest arriving at airfield on a school bus. Foreign nationals are being evacuated and supplies are being brought in by U.S. Air Force Cargo planes. Long lines of C-130s taxi for takeoff. In West Africa, view from cockpit of a C-130 and from inside the cargo hold as the aircraft deploys extraction parachute with connected cargo of grain for the local population suffering severe drought. People gather around a town center square, where grain is being distributed. Woman carries basket of grain on her head.
From "The Last Bomb": The defeat of Japan through American airpower in World War 2. Mix of actual combat footage and a small amount of vintage, dramatized, pilot in cockpit footage. A single B-29 from the 39th Bomb Group (stationed at North Field Guam) drops clusters of incendiary and fragmentation bombs over Japan. Bombs away view of large number of bombs falling toward Japan. A formation of B-29s from the 498th Bomb Group, Isley Field, Saipan, in flight during a daytime bombing mission over Japan. Explosions and smoke rise from targets in Japan, including two Japanese aircraft plants and an airdrome as part of U.S. tactical plan 574. Color, low aerial view of massive bomb damage over Tokyo following U.S. air attacks of March 1945. Escorting P-51s from Iwo Jima engage defending Japanese fighter aircraft in dogfights. Aerial gun camera footage of Japanese airplanes being hit, exploding, bursting into flames, and falling from sky to crash. Later, P-51s conduct strafing attacks against Japanese ground targets, including: lines of communication; railroads; marshaling yards; factories; airfields; ships; and harbors. Color gun camera footage shows these strafing attacks. P-51s returning to land at Iwo Jima and performing celebratory rolls over the field. Crippled B-29s making emergency landings on Iwo Jima. A B-29 from 500th Bomb Group with an engine shutdown. A B-29 from the 29th Bomb Group. Bad weather over runway at Iwo Jima forces a P-51 pilot to bail out over the field. A B-29 from the 6th Bomb Group ditches in water near beach on Iwo Jima. A B-29 crashes and bursts into flames during landing at Iwo Jima (all crew escapes.) Firefighters douse the flames with foam. Formation of B-29s from 39th Bomb Group returning to Guam after bombing mission over Japan. A B-29 crashing on landing and bursting into flames. Sole surviving crew member being carried on stretcher, as firemen and rescue teams work at scene. Formations of B-29s from 498th Bomb Group and 9th Bomb Group, in flight. Good color view from B-29 of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, which brought about the capitulation of Japan and end of World War 2. Large mushroom cloud rising into the air following atomic bomb explosion at Nagasaki.
10th Air Jungle Rescue Detachment mission in Burma, during World War Two. U.S. Airmen talk in front of jeep bearing Letters "AJR" on its windshield.. They examine a map. Ground crew pull props through on B-25 Mitchell bomber and clean gun turret canopies. View of pilots inside cockpit of B-25 in flight over jungle. A jungle rescue team discusses mission in front of a Sikorsky YR-4B helicopter parked at field. Pilot, Lieutenant Carter Harmon, climbs into cockpit of the helicopter. Ground crew seen pulling props through on a B-25. Views from inside a B-25 flying over jungle. The object of rescue is is seen. (TSgt Ed "Murphy" Hladovcak of the 1st Air Commandos, piloting a Stinson L-1 Vigilant with three wounded British soldiers on board, had been forced down behind Japanese lines, several miles from Mawlu, Burma.) Two B-25s are seen parked on a rough field. A white tent is nearby and many Burmese people are seen. Airmen are seen around a B-25. Brief view of happy airmen inside a vehicle. (Note: This is probably the first use of a helicopter for a combat rescue. )
Trooping line Honor Guard in front of SEAC (South East Asia Command) headquarters during World War II. British Air Marshal Sir Guy Garrod walks down the steps of headquarter building followed by other officials. Sir Guy Garrod gives salute to Honor Guard. He reviews the Honor Guard. Lord Louis Mountbatten outside headquarters with Air Marshals, Sir Keith Park and Sir Guy Garrod.
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