AIR STUNTS

Subscribe and Dating to 1936, this silent film "Air Stunts" shows highlights from the National Air Races, which featured a number of barnstormer acts as well as racing competitions. One astonishing segment shows pilot Harold Johnson performing a loop and roll with a gigantic Ford Trimotor -- a plane not exactly built for performance (1:44). At (3:19) he lands on one wheel. At (:44), Hollywood stunt pilot Frank Clark maneuvers a biplane above an attentive crowd. At (3:34) a parachutist jumps off the wing of a biplane as part of a "spot landing" competition. At (4:45), WWI Canadian ace Dick Granere performs tricks in a plane that he once described as a "flying bathtub", a Curtiss-Wright CW-1 Junior, originally named the Curtiss-Robertson CR-1 Skeeter, tail NC10976. At (6:20), Captain Alexandru "Alex" Papană aka Alex Papana of the Romanian Air Forces performs in his Bücker Bü 133B Jungermeister. At 7:15, Italian ace Tenente Colonnello Tito Falconi flies inverted over the crowd in his Caproni 113 biplane. At (8:30), Milo Burcham performs. He worked as a stunt pilot, airshow pilot, and test pilot and was sadly killed flying America's first jet fighter. At (9:23) German aviator Urnst Udet picks up a handkerchief from the ground with his biplane, the AL61A-398 Flamingo D-822. At (10:57) the late Major Al Wilson flies in a 1910 pusher aircraft. (Wilson died while doing flying stunts at the 1932 Cleveland Air Races show.) At 11:56, famed pilot Roscoe Turner is shown achieving a new speed record of 248 miles per hour. The aircraft shown is a Howard DGA-3 "Pete". At 12:08, French pilot Michel Detroyat is shown flies at 300 mph in 1936 in his Falkerts SK-2 R283Y.