The Story of Flight
Prod. Tim
Exell, Jules Gammont
Green Umbrella
Sport & Leisure
Australian
Distributor: Duke Home Entertainment
This documentary summarises the
development of aircraft from the Wright Brothers up to the Space Shuttle. It’s
a lot to cover in 110 minutes, but the film manages to do it really well. It
was made largely in Britain and is a bit Europe-oriented but this is reasonable
considering that this is where many major aircraft developments occurred. The
influence of two World Wars spurred this on.
There is a remarkable amount of historic
footage, mostly original, not cleaned up.
This is supplemented by stunning colour footage of some of the few
remaining restored historic aircraft at air shows and collections. Watching
these flying machines take to the air gives you a good understanding of just
how flimsy they were, and you can only admire the bravery of the men who flew
and later fought in them.
Civil aviation is not ignored. Many of the
early passengers were as brave as the fighting men to take to the air in these
craft. Yet flying proved popular, even as a private sport, and the quality of
the aircraft grew. By the outbreak of World War 2 the Air Forces of the
combatants were largely being modernized with all-metal aircraft and a level of
armament that a WW1 pilot could only have dreamed about. Again there is a lot
of historic footage supplemented by film of restored examples. The rise of the
jet aircraft is covered in some detail.
The coverage of Cold War aircraft is
particularly good. This area is often ignored, but it included the Korean War
where jet aircraft combat techniques were developed, and the important spy
plane missions.
The tremendous developments in post war
civil aviation are well covered, with some magnificent photography of the
various Airbus models, It serves as a good reminder that not all the world’s
airliners are built by Boeing. The film finishes with the magnificent but
incredibly expensive Concorde, and some shots of the Space Shuttle – the
airliner of the future?
This documentary is designed for
entertainment. The narration is by Tom Baker (one of the many Doctor Whos in
case you recognize the name). His easy delivery does not sound at all pompous,
a fault of some British documentaries, and he suits the style of the film well.
The DVD also contains as an extra a very
brief but beautifully filmed homage to the Concorde.
Duke Home Entertainment is a small firm
which specialises in inexpensive documentaries. At present their catalogue is
mostly motorbikes and cars, including the classic On Any Sunday weekend
motor sports series. Such low-production DVDs tend to disappear quickly from
sale, and Duke is to be congratulated for keeping these films available. The
Story of Flight, for instance, dates back to 2003. Let’s hope that more films
of this sort will enter their range.
This review will appear in Volume 2:1
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
If you came to this page directly (and
missed our menu), click here
to go to the Synergy Magazine front page. (http://www.synergy-magazine.com)