Airport - first-ever film made film by the Shell Film Unit describing a day in the Croydon Airport
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- Опубликовано: 3 июл 2024
- 17 mins black-and-white sound film describing a day in the life of Croydon Airport which was London's leading airport during the 1920s and 1930s, this film released in 1934 was the first-ever film made by the Shell Film Unit.
Beginning with the airport's gates opening and the launch of a meteorological weather balloon, the film opens with the roll-out and ground maintenance of Imperial Airways Handley Page HP.45 G-AAXC 'Heracles' and the loading of airmail and passengers before taking off. The footage is also shown of KLM Fokker F.IX PH-AGA 'Adelaar' being refuelled on the ground by Shell and of KLM Fokker F.XII PH-AID 'Duif' in flight.
The film then graphically via maps shows various international air routes from London across the world and some of the processes involved in flight route planning, air traffic control and air-to-ground communications.
After various inflight footage the second half of the film begins with various different aircraft in flight and landing at Croydon including among others Lufthansa Junkers Ju-52/3m D-ADER and D-AMIT, Swiss Air Lines Douglas DC-2 HB-ITE, Air France Wibault 282-T F-AMHK, KLM Fokker F.XXXVI PH-AJA and AB Aerotransport Fokker F.XXII SE-ABA.
Imperial Airways Handley Page HP.45 G-AAXD 'Horatius' is then seen landing with passengers disembarking and mail sacks and luggage unloaded. The film then moves onto the HP.45 G-AAXC 'Heracles' undergoing maintenance with some very detailed film footage of its Bristol Jupiter engines (including its pistons and connecting rods) being thoroughly cleaned and worked on.
The film concludes with a shot of a De Havilland DH.60G Gipsy Moth G-ABBJ on the ground and footage of Imperial Airways Short L17 G-ACJK 'Syrinx' landing.
Produced by Edgar Anstey, directed by Roy Lockwood, photographed by Stanley Rodwell and narrated by Carleton Hobbs, with music by William Hodgson and Jack Bevir.
The Royal Aeronautical Society has received the permissions for sharing these videos by Shell International Limited. For use of videos for non-commercial purposes credit the Royal Aeronautical Society with the respective company. For commercial use and for further information on each videos copyright, contact: nal@aerosociety.com
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The father of my late aunt was Frederick Stanley Mockford. He was the senior radio officer at Croydon Airport and devised the Mayday distress call in 1923.
Fascinating. The engineering of those days, the dress codes!
If you ever visit the museum at the old Croydon Airport terminal building, they sell this film on a DVD. Run by volunteers, it is open on the first Sunday of every month. The variety of artefacts and curiosities from inter-war aviation is astonishing - well worth a visit. Be sure to take one of the guided tours.
Top hole old chap.
Just think. When the Handley-Page H. P.42 was first flown on regular routes in 1931. Just four years later, the Douglas Aircraft Company revealed its DC-3. And twenty one years later we had the De Havilland Comet. My, how time flies.
And all this is happening only about 35 years after the Wright brothers first staggered into the air. And in another 35 years men will be walking on the moon.
History in the making I would say..now all that is left is dehaviland heron on ramp…
And the DC-3's still fly in various parts of the world. Alaska for one place.
Interesting.
To think that my partner's father (still alive) was born in London in the same year that this film was made!
The UK was the first to do everything looking back at history. 🇬🇧🇬🇧👍👍
Most things!
Lets not over-gild the lily!
/
Great little film. Love the "string and sealing wax" embryonic ATC and, of course, the stiff upper lip narration. A gem!
This is so fascinating as I lived in Croydon and then went on to join the RAF as an aircraft engineer so aircraft are a great interest. Its such a shame they didnt make Croydon the site for the London airport! Heathrow is so far from London, Croydon is right THERE! I wish someone had the presence of mind to PRESERVE one of those Handley Page aircraft - sadly none survive so it is forgotten. I would have loved to see one of them.
Can’t imagine the excitement? Was something new in the process of discovering new ways of traveling.. wow just incredible the past generation.. life was not easy back then but everything was such challenge.
... THE MILE HIGH CLUB May have had Something New To The Meaning 🏴🤔🥂
I love this narrator!
Who remembers building the Airfix HP 42 as a lad, all those Z shaped struts , quite an achievement when you finished it .
Fascinating, thanks! That biplane was a beast.
That was Amazing , The Engine rebuild . The wooden engine stands . Outstanding thank you.
You’re absolutely correct to notice the engine rebuild hasn’t really changed that much in almost 100 years when we take apart my Lycoming 0-360 at 2000 hours for an overhaul they go through almost the identical process you see in the film…so piston engines overhauls have changed very little but nice to know the technology was there in 1935 because technically you look at that aircraft those engines and you wonder how the hell did that thing even get off the ground and what was the consistent statistical reliability of those engines
I can tell you that they weren’t 2000 hours between overhaul. They were probably a few hundred.
What a wonderful record of those pioneering times. Amazing to see the extreme difference in designs that were flying together at that moment in aviation history. The DC3 looked so advanced in comparrison....it was!!
The fact that they are still in service around the world to this day is testement to their great design and usefulness.
The narrator of course, the great Carlton Hobbs, was a big star in radio drama at the time and famously made his name as Sherlock Holmes. He can still be heard in the role on BBC Sounds.
I love films like this. Thank you!
It's still hard to think that the fuselage was a Pullman railway carriage with a plane bolted onto it. I remember that all Croydon council had to do was to pour a load of soil over the top of the section of runway close to Purley Way instead of tearing it up.
Love the way the aircraft were given their position approaching the coast using bearings from different receiving stations. We still use a similar electronic method using 3 bearing points or more called MLAT (Multilateration) for aircraft that don't display a transponder beacon. The only thing that has really changed is from using string bearings, to electronic pulses. The rest of it is exactly the same to triangulate on an aircraft.
We used RDF (when approaching a coast) in the MN before the advent of GPS.
Really is the only way to navigate. Even Sat Nav. How far are you from a number of known fixed points? Croydon really was the development base for Air Traffic Control. TheTowwer is now a museum with lots of intresting little goodies in it.
Small point - multilateration works on a rather different principle from triangulation (it uses intersecting parabolae), and it still requires the aircraft to have a transponder.
Brilliant video really enjoyed that
So sad that the RAF managed to destroy most of the remaining HP42 and HP45 aircraft, mostly by failing to tie them down properly in windy airfields.
What a uniquely satisfying film. This is one of the more delightful clips in the whole of RUclips. Some may wish to accompany it with a viewing of the Hercule Poirot drama "Death in the Clouds" (featuring a little spot of murder between Le Bourget and Croydon, in the first-class accommodations; the dramatization is NOT really spoiled by its featuring a Douglas C-47 or similar, tarted up to resemble a DC-3: in this Shell documentary we of course see the real le Bourget-to-Croydon machine, an actual Handley Page). - (signed) Toomas Karmo, in Nõo Rural Municipality, Estonia
Love finding stuff like this.
Fantastic thanks!
Thank you for uploading . that was lovely. so many interesting details
When the piston engines roaring subtitles writing "Music". And for me this is really music.
Thank-you, absolutely fascinating. Made more so as I grew up next to the airfield in the 60/70s.
Great film......but the size of the steering wheel is something off the Titanic 😮
Brilliant thanks for shearing 👍🏻 🏆
Safety even in the early ages of aviation is just astounding. I would have liked to have known the turnaround time for when they got that plane into before it was ready for the engine rebuilds and all that.
Just fascinating.
Incredible to think each plane had a coal fire and a smoking lounge where passengers could sip port and listen to a string quartet. Talk about travelling in style!
Wow 🤩
Similar to now but with advancements in technology all around.
Still, the human factor is the same.
Great film.
How close were the ground crew when that plane parked up and they ran forwards under the props! 😲
My favourite airliner...
The bearing plotting board seen at 9:07 is still there, and in the same room too.
Very interesting, thank you for uploading. As many people, I am sure, I associate the Junkers with the swastika with the Blitzkrieg. The registration of the first one shown, D-ADER at 7:41, reinforces that association. DADER in Dutch means culprit...
I reconstructed Croydon for X plane and fly the d-ader to cologne butzweiler Hof and then to Berlin rangsdorf like in the book of Johannes Mario Simmel
nice bit of history, I live not far from Croydon airport went today to fly my DJ IMini 2
That damaged skin under the cockpit port side on heracles is in every image ive seen.Did they ever fix it?How would a passenger feel ,seeing that?Horatius also???
📽️🎞️A very good perspective of everyday older commercial aircraft. A great viewpoint. Thanks. This was the kind of film that would be shown to kids in school, when the teacher called in sick, too late to get a substitute. Somewhere in the first two minutes. some kids would male fart noises.
… they used morse code as well. Navigator was busy.
Incredible to see this Handley Page contraption alongside the Douglag DC2 and even the Fokker F36... So much more modern aircraft designs. Based pure on instinct, I wouldn't risk my life on one of these quirky biplanes. Great document though of an era gone by. Thanks!
The Handley-Page ‘contraptions’ operated for Imperial Airways for nearly ten years during which time they clocked-up over 10,000,000 miles with minimal damage and no loss of life!
@@THATSGRANDAD Exactly. The HP42 is one of the safest passenger aircraft in history!
The HP42 wasn`t exactly "state of the art" for its time but they were going more for "safe, sturdy, dependable" with the design and, despite being a fixed landing gear biplane it did have some advanced features. Pity none of them survived WWII.
@@AbelMcTalisker If I'm not wrong, the HP42 introduced the revolutionary Handley Page leading edge slats. The fixed undercarriage was only a seemingly backwards gesture: a fixed undercarriage made a lot of sense, given that the plane was expected to operate in many far-away, backward areas not likely to have extensive repairing facilities. Speed was desirable, but not a primary concern given the largest expected clientele for the airline, i. e. Empire high-ranking officials.
@@javiergilvidal1558 I don`t think it was the first plane to actually have them though they were certainly one of the HP 42`s safety features.
Great
A "Goniometer"? Anyway, great historical record and delightful audio, even tasteful modernist music.
Yes, it comes from two Greek words: Gonia, an angle, and metron, measure. Describes the process exactly.
Such a shame that all of the interwar large airliners are gone; there's quite a few interesting ones here - the AW Atalanta, the Short Scylla, the HP42 (of course), the Fokker and Junkers trimotors and an early DC1? or DC3?? reconstructing one, even for ground display would be very expensive but it would be such a sight to see an HP 42 in the metal (and wire).
I've been looking for this for years. Thank you. The HP42s were the most amazing looking aircraft. Huge and luxurious. The whole working of this pre war transport hub is totally fascinating, particularly the primitive air traffic control system. What on earth is a "Goniometer", anyway? :)
Its an old-fashioned radio direction finder. The original finder was a coil of wire on a frame (literally a "frame antenna") that you rotated to find the strongest or weakest signal -- the signal's strongest when the coil is perpendicular to the direction the signal's coming from. Since its inconvenient to rotate a large frame antenna what they used instead was a set of them, its the assembly that looks a bit like a spherical birdcage on the control tower. Each on of the set of antennas would be fed to a box with coil assemblies matching the antennas and in the middle of these coils would be another coil that's connected to the bearing control the operator is seen rotating. This gives the same effect as rotating a single coil, its just more convenient and accurate. The coil box is the 'Gniometer'
@@martinusher1 brilliant. Thanks for the detailed description, Martin. This really was cutting edge, wasn't it? The very beginning of air traffic control, before radar.
Even a wire can resonate
Did the pilot get to keep the green shield stamps?
Historical note: The term MAYDAY for a distress call was devised at Croydon Airport. The tower building is now preserved as a museum.
... So Your A Croydonian I Take It... Nevertheless, I've Been Educated. CHEERS FOR THAT🏴🥂🤔
And only open one day a month!
"Mayday? That was months ago!!!" Tony Hancock, the radio ham.
Anyone have a time machine? Can I go there for a few days? :)
😂😂 yes I too
Just make sure you have all the modern inoculations before you go.
@@Coltnz1 Ah, that's why time travel isn't possible then
@@Coltnz1 A time traveller would be inmune to most XXth century deseases. Real risk may be the other way around.
ATC watch logs , some from earlier times than shown here, were (maybe still are) displayed in the lobby of the College of ATC at Bournemouth Airport. Many of the entries reported pilots making that most heinous of actions, turning right after landing!
3:04. "expert wheel washing technician". actually, i suppose this is to wash off clumps of dried mud so as to keep it from detaching and damaging the wing tail during takeoff? checking for leaks? just washing to be spiffy?
Just imagine flying to Australia i one of those string bags, taking the best part of a week together with overnight stops in the stragest of places.
The HP42 didn't go all the way to Australia. Somewhere in the Middle East, you changed planes. By 1937-8, you could all the way in a Short Empire flying boat, from which the Sunderland used during World War Two was developed
@@MCT954 I am aware noi matter where they flew in these aircraft to all parts of the empire some of the locations were in the middle of nowhere. Far more exciting than today although the aircraft would not have been very comfortable.
All the aircraft had square type windows which spelled doom when fitted to the first Comet jet aircraft.
I live in Croydon.... And there's no airport where I live, but the view out the mountains is pretty damn good!
Guess where?
USA
@@TheRogey1 Nope… wrong country..
What is the plane seen in the closing credits? It differs from the HP42 in that it has its 4 engines mounted in-line between top & bottom wings, & has different tail.
Short L.17 Scylla
1:24 I'm worried, what's that flat screen doing on the right?
These huge beauties took so much manpower, time and money to operate that its hard to believe it was profitable.
It wasn't profitable. Note that every airline featured here was nationalised. No Freddie Laker or Easyjet in those days.
Off Purley Way - the art deco old terminal building is still there - Aerodrome House or something it is called
Zing. It's Airport Hse. Aerodrome is the hotel next door.
Was it pre war or pre posterous?
Correct me if I am wrong but I do not recall if any of these machines were involved in major air craft crashes, they may look ungainly but many with multiple engines they were reliable ? not sure how they would respond in very windy conditions though ?
Wikipedia has a list of histories for each aircraft and many seemed to have met their ends through accident at various locations while in service with the RAF in 1940 by the looks of it.
Passenger flying in 1935 was a pretty hairy business. Everything was rather rudimentary- and dangerous!- in modern terms.
Does anyone know what the ensign was that was flown from the Imperial Airways planes?
It was the Civil Air Ensign . Insituted 1931.
@@51WCDodge Many thanks.
Flying Dutchman-KLM 210 gallons 4 star please
Those men/ women of that Era were more good looking and gorgeous as like those newly invented/ ever improving machines!✌
Does the lovely main building still survive?
A small part remains, open to public a few times a year. Most of the old airport land is now a housing estate.
The workers used to live on Waddon housing estate, across the road from Croydon airport, built for it in the 1920's. Can spot them now, the dark red brick houses just off Purley Way. History, ey?
I'm still annoyed that nobody talks about the replica HP-42 that was allegedly being built. It all just suddenly went quiet.
First I've heard of it.
There’s nothing to get annoyed about; the chap who proposed the replica was a complete Walter Mitty.
~0:20 "…slightly shortened"
↑ I'd be fascinated to know what was cut… some obliging reference to that cheeky chappie Herr Hitler, perhaps?
Back when Biplanes ruled, though not for much longer, and IFR meant, I Follow Roads!
"..first-ever film made film by the Shell Film Unit describing a day in the Croydon Airport". Think someone needs to work on the title of this video.
You sound vaccinated! 😮
Then came radar …
Honestly, who came up with the title for this video?
It was uploaded on How Many Times Can You Put 'Film' In The Title Day.
Imperial
Imperial
Imperial
😆😆😆The Fokkers are everywhere!!!
We should get back to basics. Fly by planes agai. Radial engines. To apreciate flight again. Damn it. Advanced world lost it do to technology. No longer exitment.
Frederick stanley mockford
Frederick stanley mockford
Frederick stanley mockford
Had to have a laugh at the Junkers aircraft ........ still had the swastika on their tails🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
A swastika, D-AMIT?
This was before the war so the symbol had yet to attain fully the status that was later attached to it. Not particularly funny, really.
Well considering that Germany used the swastika as their national flag from 1935 and this film is from that era not really funny is it
Today we fly in all smiling and map you. Later we come over and bomb you! Dc3 Ju 52 and the good old bi-plane pile of stings British HP42. Doesd make you wonder.
Thank Americans Britz learned how to fly. And learn how to make planes ? Now Britz are proud taking credits
When people travelled in smart clothes. Unlike today where people don’t give a sh1t….
When only the VERY rich travelled