FORMATION FLYING

This short novelty film, "Formation Flying" was sold in the 1920s. It and a series of films released by Hollywood Film Enterprises and Excel accompanied a toy projector that used a household light bulb. This film shows 1930s U.S. Navy airplanes including TBD Devastator torpedo bombers (the Navy's first all metal aircraft) and Grumman F3F biplanes, flying in formation over San Diego. The TBD Devastator was the first American carrier-based monoplane to be widely used, the first all-metal naval aircraft, the first with a completely enclosed cockpit, the first with power-actuated (hydraulically) folding wings