Reel 1. Wardour Films Ltd. Produced by British Instructional Films Ltd. Welwyn Garden City.
Birds in flight by cliffs. Daedelus and Icarus in their island dungeon make wings. They then fly - models of the men wearing wings fly high over a Greek village. Icarus flies close to the sun and his wax wings melt. Leonardo Da Vinci's invention for flight. Men and women dressed in 15th century costume stand on castle balcony and watch a man fly. Model of a flying ship invented by Francis Lana (?) - this is shown flying. Sir George Cayley's flight invention. Henson invented a flying machine and Stringfellow invented a steamship carriage. A replica has been built by the film-makers and people in 1842 costume stand around excitedly to watch it take off.
Reactions of a beer drinker who sees the aeroplane in the sky. He thinks it is the effect of the beer. Aeroplane is shown flying over St Paul's Cathedral. People look through a telescope at the plane for a "penny a peep". Flying over Cairo. Stringfellow builds a model aeroplane. It is driven by steam and was first machine to fly under its own power. Otto Lilienthal controls a home made glider of his own design in Germany. Orville and Wilbur Wright fitted their glider with an engine. Actual film of one of their flights - they break the altitude record. Film of another Wright aeroplane. The plane is started up. First Official Flying Meeting in France. President Fallieres being greeted by Mr Millerand (sps?) General French also present. Mr Latham's machine being towed out to the display. Mr Latham gets into his aircraft. He takes off. The famous Farman Box Kite (?).
See reels 2 and 3.
Note: clipped, jokey voice over, mixture of newsreel footage and actors playing scenes. No mute neg of reel 1.