AERONAUTIC ANTICS

Year Published: 1973

Format: 16mm

Description: This silent black-and-white compilation film titled "Aeronautics Antics" from 1973 showcases some of the most ridiculous flying machines ever constructed. It contains footage of failed plane and helicopter designs from the 1920s. It also contains fabulous footage of early airplane stunts and barnstormers, with stunts by the "13 Black Cats" group of stunt pilots also included. The film is presented by Sky Deven. "Aeronautics Antiques" title banner (00:06). "Early Effords!" title banner (00:10). Footage of a 1930s cycle airship, with flapping wings controlled by a cycling mechanism (00:12). An early design of a helicopter, possibly part of the Berliner Helicopter series of experimental helicopters built by Henry Berliner between 1922 and 1925 (00:23). The ‘Pitts Sky Car’ umbrella helicopter, an unsuccessful aircraft designed for vertical take off by the French engineer Etienne Oehmichen in April 1923 (00:56). An upsweep wing aircraft designed for intercontinental flights (01:43). The Pescara Model 3, the first of several coaxial helicopter designs by Raúl Pateras Pescara to demonstrate sustained controlled helicopter flight (01:57). "The Wooden Eagle" ornithopter aircraft in the state of Maine (02:07). A ferris wheel aircraft invented in Chicago (02:17). The Gerhardt Cycleplane designed by Dr. William Frederick Gerhardt, first flown in 1923 (02:35). "Later came the daredevils!" title banner (02:52). Ormer Locklear in 1919 performing wing walking stunts (02:55). Richard Schindler performs stunts on a Klemp plane piloted by Richard Perlia in 1927 (03:23). "The hat collector" stunt, where a man stands holding up a hat and an airplane flies by with a guy hanging upside down from the axle and he tries to grab the hat (03:28). Gladys Ingle, the only female member of 13 Black Cats, the daredevil wing walkers who did some of Hollywood’s best stunt work in the 1920s, moves from one biplane to another in the sky in 1926 (03:33). Possibly Gladys Ingle hangs inverted from an airplane using her leg (03:44). Stuntman Carl 'Poochy' Smith successfully transfers from an aircraft flying just above the ground to a driving car (03:54). A stuntman transfers from a moving train to a flying airplane (04:04). A team is blindfolding a stuntman (04:15). (04:18). Rope is tied around his ankles and he is pulled from the wing of one plane to another (04:17). A stuntman is wearing a straitjacket (04:34). He lies in a tube attached to the underside of an aircraft (04:37). The plane flies and he is dropped from a tube (04:41). A stuntman holds a mouthpiece with a hook (04:58). "By teeth…" title banner (05:04). The stuntman hangs from a flying aircraft by his mouth (05:05). A stuntman wearing a "white phantom" shirt is lifted by his hair (05:16). "... and by hair! !" title banner (05:20). He hangs a flying plane by his hair over Los Angeles in 1920 (05:22). "Even the ladies! !" title banner (05:42). Wing walker Lillian Boyer dangles from the wing of a biplane in 1922 (05:45). Lillian Boyer climbs from a driving car to a rope hanging from a flying plane (06:11). A wing walker transfers themself from one flying plane to another using a hook and ankle ties (06:26). A young girl in a dress wing walks on a flying aircraft (06:32). Gladys Ingle performs wing walking stunts (06:44). Possibly stuntwoman Bessie Coleman wing walking a plane flying in loops (07:11). "The End" text overlay (07:57).