Conquest of the Air was a 1936 documentary film on the evolution of aviation, up until the early stages of World War Two. It features historical footage of the developments of commercial and military aviation; including the early stages of technology developments in design, propulsion, and air navigation aids. It was a London Films production, commissioned by the Air Ministry of the British Government.
It appears that the film was initially commissioned by Alexander Korda prior to the advent of WW2 - and the Air Ministry saw the value in promoting Britain's contribution and leadership in aviation during this period. Some fascinating footage is featured of the early phases of automated flight, navigational equipment, and the transitions between civil and military developments. This includes heavy bombers; fast fighter aircraft and the advent of naval aviation (aircraft carrier), plus the initial experiments with vertical rotary flight (helicopters).
An updated version was released in 1940, and released in the United States on 20 May 1940.
Famous quotes containing the words conquest of the, the air, conquest of, conquest and/or air:
“The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it.”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
“I wonder whether mankind could not get along without all these names, which keep increasing every day, and hour, and moment; till at the last the very air will be full of them; and even in a great plain, men will be breathing each other’s breath, owing to the vast multitude of words they use, that consume all the air, just as lamp-burners do gas.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“While I am in favor of the Government promptly enforcing the laws for the present, defending the forts and collecting the revenue, I am not in favor of a war policy with a view to the conquest of any of the slave States; except such as are needed to give us a good boundary. If Maryland attempts to go off, suppress her in order to save the Potomac and the District of Columbia. Cut a piece off of western Virginia and keep Missouri and all the Territories.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“The great social adventure of America is no longer the conquest of the wilderness but the absorption of fifty different peoples.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“Only the gaunt fierce bird
Flies, merciless with fear
Lest air hold him not,
Beats up the scaffold of space
Sick of the world’s rot
God’s hideous face.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)