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Aviation History
1930
UNTITLED0 - 1271.PDF
FLIGHT, OCTOBER 31, 1930 BRADFORD GLIDING CLUB—The Club held twosuccessful meetings, on October 25 and 26, and alto- gether over 70 flights were made. The ground at ApperleyBridge was used again as negotiations for the site on Baildon Moor have not yet been completed. Members of the Club had a very pleasant experience onSunday, when Mr. Gordon England and Mr. Wapplington paid a surprise visit to the flying ground. They both ex-pressed their approval with the glider and also the method of training in operation. Members of the Committee took them to view the site onthe moor and Mr. Gordon England stated that it was one of the finest sites he had seen, the site being suitable for bothtraining and soaring and being easily accessible from the City. The constructional section has been started, and onMonday evening members constructed the rib jig for the spare pair of wings for the Club glider (Dickson type)which they intend building. The next flying meetings will be held on Saturday, Nov-ember 1, commencing at 2 p.m., and Sunday, November 2, commencing at 9 a.m., at Apperley Bridge. Those interestedin the Club should apply to the Hon. Sec, Mr. S. Young, 17, Roslyn Place, Great Horton, Bradford. HELLfS ANGELS " T JELL'S ANGELS," now being presented at the I—I London Pavilion, is a film which no one who has•*• •"• any interest in the air should miss. Its photography is marvellous and certainly by far the best which has ever been seen on the screen in connection with aircraft. But—and a very large but—there is no doubt that Mr.Howard Hughes, its producer, will not gain the whole- hearted support of ex-R.F.C. officers and men. It seemslittle short of incredible that one who has spent such colossal sums—the film is reputed to have cost $4,000,000 to produce—on obtaining real war-time aircraft and the services of a staff of flying experts and pilots, the size of which makethe staff of an aerial transport company look small, should almost entirely neglect the accuracy of every detail of thefilm except the flying side. Though even here it was asking much to expect us to stomach tight formation flying atnight in search of Zeppelins. On Tuesday night, one could hear snorts of derision allaround from those who looked upon the farcical representa- tion of R.F.C. officers, their uniform, their behaviour and,in fact, everything they said and did except flying; as a direct insult to the Service. But, and again a large " but," themisrepresentation of the facts did not stop at the depiction of the R.F.C., it extended into all the personal scenes notactually connected with flying. Why Mr. Hughes did not engage an English actress instead of a blatantly "Amuurican"one is ununderstandable. Why, when spending so lavishly on the production, he did not enlist the services of one ofthose Englishmen, whom we are told are numerous in Holly- wood since the advent of the Talkies, to anglicise the internaldecoration of the houses, the furniture, the doors of the rooms, the labels on the shop windows, the postal serviceand their method of delivering letters and, in fact, the whole non-flying side of the film, is quite beyond comprehension.Why try and make it English at all if it is not going to be done properly ? No doubt as it stands it will pass for Englishin America, but we are told that its consumption over here is even more important. The story itself is, of course, weak, and the general behaviourof those who are entrusted with catering for that section of the public who cannot do without their " Love Interest,"very sloppy, but, unlike other flying films we have recently had thrust upon us from America, " Hell's Angels " triumphsover these faults—seemingly totally unnecessary faults— by virtue of its incredibly magnificent photography. Thefinest of the scenes are naturally centred round the Zeppelin THE POITON & —a real one, which we are told was built at a cost of $500,000by the Goodyear Zeppelin Corp. In describing the arrival of this airship through a cloud one would be in the greatestdanger of detracting from its majestic beauty if one were to say more than that it is the greatest masterpiece of photo-graphy ever seen on the screen. The subsequent aerial combats—using S.E.5's, Camels, Avro's, Snipes, FokkerD.VII's and a Gotha—and the final destruction of the Zeppelin, are marvellous, especially this latter, though onecannot help but regret that its presentation should have come so close on the heels of the disaster to R.101. We imaginethat this fact will reflect very greatly on the film's popularity. Taken all round, " Hell's Angels " is a most magnificentfilm, which comes within an ace of being ruined—for this country at any rate—through lack of attention to detailswhich should have been correctly presented. It appears that Mr. Hughes has been so bitten with the idea that he wasgoing to produce an unsurpassable flying film that he con- sidered the rest of the story unimportant, with the resultthat there is a far too well defined line between the excellence of the one and the inferiority of the other. From the point of view of the cost of production, a fewdetails are interesting. The staff of pilots was some 137 and the two chief actorshad to learn to fly for the purposes of the film. Not one of the aerial scenes is faked and all the crashesshown are real. Reports vary as to the number of pilots who were killed during the production, but it would appearto be between three and seven. The film has taken since 1926 to produce, though the actualfilming did not start until October, 1927. A complete aerodrome was maintained in California as the main base,and a second representing the one from which Baron von Richthofen operated during the war., One of the Fokker D.VII's used is reputed to be one of theactual machines used in Richthofen's " Circus," and during the production of " Hell's Angels " it flew over 400 hours. One other point worthy of mention is the sound anddialogue. This is the best we have heard and in most cases the aeroplane engine noises come through quite realisticallyinstead of being a blurred jumble of harsh sounds. In view of the size of the production it did seem as if thefilm was somewhat short, especially as we have been told by people who actually took part all about the mass of materialwhich has been cut out, but as it is the interest is sustained until the last moment. <•> <•> ALL-METAL .TWIN-ENGINED DAY-BOMBER ••• THE WIDTH OF THE FUSELAGE ENABLES THE PILOT TO SEE PRACTICALLY NOTHING. THEREBY ADDING SPICE TO ADVENTURE • -THOUGH FITTED FOR CARRYING BOMBS SHE CARRIES NONE, SO BLINDING THE ENEMY. With apologies. * 1199
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