AEROPLANE STUNTS

Year Published: 1920s

Format: 16mm

Description: This is silent newsreel type footage from an airshow from the 1920s, featuring World War I aircraft doing a stunt performance, that includes shooting down a artillery spotting gas filled balloon, parachute jumps, and a simulated bomb run. Following that film, there is a second film that shows the flight of the worlds largest seaplane, the Dornier Do X. The Do X was the largest, heaviest, and most powerful flying boat in the world in 1929. First conceived by Dr. Claude Dornier in 1924, planning started in late 1925 and after over 240,000 work-hours it was completed in June 1929. The German Transport Ministry financed the Do X, and in order to circumvent conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, which forbade any aircraft exceeding set speed and range limits to be built by Germany after World War I, a specially designed plant was built at Altenrhein, on the Swiss portion of Lake Constance. While the type was popular with the public, a lack of commercial interest and a number of non-fatal accidents prevented more than three examples from being built.

Complete Record: This is silent newsreel type footage from an airshow from the 1920s, featuring World War I aircraft doing a stunt performance, that includes shooting down a artillery spotting gas filled balloon, parachute jumps, and a simulated bomb run. Following that film, there is a second film that shows the flight of the worlds largest seaplane, the Dornier Do X. The Do X was the largest, heaviest, and most powerful flying boat in the world in 1929. First conceived by Dr. Claude Dornier in 1924, planning started in late 1925 and after over 240,000 work-hours it was completed in June 1929. The German Transport Ministry financed the Do X, and in order to circumvent conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, which forbade any aircraft exceeding set speed and range limits to be built by Germany after World War I, a specially designed plant was built at Altenrhein, on the Swiss portion of Lake Constance. While the type was popular with the public, a lack of commercial interest and a number of non-fatal accidents prevented more than three examples from being built.