Airport - first-ever film made film by the Shell Film Unit describing a day in the Croydon Airport

[@avalanche9026]

Can’t imagine the excitement? Was something new in the process of discovering new ways of traveling.. wow just incredible the past generation.. life was not easy back then but everything was such challenge.

[@TS-1267]

... THE MILE HIGH CLUB May have had Something New To The Meaning 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🤔🥂

[@markshrimpton3138]

The father of my late aunt was Frederick Stanley Mockford. He was the senior radio officer at Croydon Airport and devised the Mayday distress call in 1923.

[@paulkirkland3263]

If you ever visit the museum at the old Croydon Airport terminal building, they sell this film on a DVD. Run by volunteers, it is open on the first Sunday of every month. The variety of artefacts and curiosities from inter-war aviation is astonishing - well worth a visit. Be sure to take one of the guided tours.

[@grahamthebaronhesketh.]

Top hole old chap.

[@alanrogers7090]

Just think. When the Handley-Page H. P.42 was first flown on regular routes in 1931. Just four years later, the Douglas Aircraft Company revealed its DC-3. And twenty one years later we had the De Havilland Comet. My, how time flies.

[@Ballinalower]

And all this is happening only about 35 years after the Wright brothers first staggered into the air. And in another 35 years men will be walking on the moon.

[@josephlambe2796]

History in the making I would say..now all that is left is dehaviland heron on ramp…

[@paulazemeckis7835]

And the DC-3's still fly in various parts of the world. Alaska for one place.

[@laurenceskinnerton73]

Interesting.

[@thomasm1964]

To think that my partner's father (still alive) was born in London in the same year that this film was made!

[@GuitarMAXMusic]

I love this narrator!

[@robinholland1136]

Great little film. Love the "string and sealing wax" embryonic ATC and, of course, the stiff upper lip narration. A gem!

[@scopex2749]

This is so fascinating as I lived in Croydon and then went on to join the RAF as an aircraft engineer so aircraft are a great interest. Its such a shame they didnt make Croydon the site for the London airport! Heathrow is so far from London, Croydon is right THERE! I wish someone had the presence of mind to PRESERVE one of those Handley Page aircraft - sadly none survive so it is forgotten. I would have loved to see one of them.

[@stirlingmoss4621]

my Mother's brother Frank trained as an aircraft engineer at Croydon (Grandpa had to fun his training) and was Amy Johnson's husbands engineer before joining the RAF in WW2 flying Hurricanes.

[@lawrencefried5027]

Fascinating. The engineering of those days, the dress codes!

[@johnmartin7919]

Love the flag being lowered just before take-off !

[@lawrencemartin1113]

What a wonderful record of those pioneering times. Amazing to see the extreme difference in designs that were flying together at that moment in aviation history. The DC3 looked so advanced in comparrison....it was!! The fact that they are still in service around the world to this day is testement to their great design and usefulness. The narrator of course, the great Carlton Hobbs, was a big star in radio drama at the time and famously made his name as Sherlock Holmes. He can still be heard in the role on BBC Sounds.

[@jonathansteadman7935]

Who remembers building the Airfix HP 42 as a lad, all those Z shaped struts , quite an achievement when you finished it .

[@davidhull1481]

Fascinating, thanks! That biplane was a beast.

[@denisiwaszczuk1176]

That was Amazing , The Engine rebuild . The wooden engine stands . Outstanding thank you.

[@leathervogel5242]

You’re absolutely correct to notice the engine rebuild hasn’t really changed that much in almost 100 years when we take apart my Lycoming 0-360 at 2000 hours for an overhaul they go through almost the identical process you see in the film…so piston engines overhauls have changed very little but nice to know the technology was there in 1935 because technically you look at that aircraft those engines and you wonder how the hell did that thing even get off the ground and what was the consistent statistical reliability of those engines I can tell you that they weren’t 2000 hours between overhaul. They were probably a few hundred.

[@markbooth1117]

Love the way the aircraft were given their position approaching the coast using bearings from different receiving stations. We still use a similar electronic method using 3 bearing points or more called MLAT (Multilateration) for aircraft that don't display a transponder beacon. The only thing that has really changed is from using string bearings, to electronic pulses. The rest of it is exactly the same to triangulate on an aircraft.

[@Bruce-1956]

We used RDF (when approaching a coast) in the MN before the advent of GPS.

[@51WCDodge]

Really is the only way to navigate. Even Sat Nav. How far are you from a number of known fixed points? Croydon really was the development base for Air Traffic Control. TheTowwer is now a museum with lots of intresting little goodies in it.

[@davereid2246]

Small point - multilateration works on a rather different principle from triangulation (it uses intersecting parabolae), and it still requires the aircraft to have a transponder.

[@torgeirbrandsnes1916]

I love films like this. Thank you!

[@toomaskarmo9435]

What a uniquely satisfying film. This is one of the more delightful clips in the whole of KZbin. Some may wish to accompany it with a viewing of the Hercule Poirot drama "Death in the Clouds" (featuring a little spot of murder between Le Bourget and Croydon, in the first-class accommodations; the dramatization is NOT really spoiled by its featuring a Douglas C-47 or similar, tarted up to resemble a DC-3: in this Shell documentary we of course see the real le Bourget-to-Croydon machine, an actual Handley Page). - (signed) Toomas Karmo, in Nõo Rural Municipality, Estonia

[@Soupdragon1964]

Thank-you, absolutely fascinating. Made more so as I grew up next to the airfield in the 60/70s.

[@Strato777]

Love finding stuff like this.

[@hpruijs]

Very interesting, thank you for uploading. As many people, I am sure, I associate the Junkers with the swastika with the Blitzkrieg. The registration of the first one shown, D-ADER at 7:41, reinforces that association. DADER in Dutch means culprit...

[@Texasstyle67]

I reconstructed Croydon for X plane and fly the d-ader to cologne butzweiler Hof and then to Berlin rangsdorf like in the book of Johannes Mario Simmel

[@anthonyturton8091]

Thank you for uploading . that was lovely. so many interesting details

[@dancahill8555]

A "Goniometer"? Anyway, great historical record and delightful audio, even tasteful modernist music.

[@ericwalton4610]

Yes, it comes from two Greek words: Gonia, an angle, and metron, measure. Describes the process exactly.

[@abundantYOUniverse]

Fantastic thanks!

[@rbrooks2007]

It's still hard to think that the fuselage was a Pullman railway carriage with a plane bolted onto it. I remember that all Croydon council had to do was to pour a load of soil over the top of the section of runway close to Purley Way instead of tearing it up.

[@nicholasbirch9732]

Brilliant video really enjoyed that

[@StudioFranq]

Incredible to see this Handley Page contraption alongside the Douglag DC2 and even the Fokker F36... So much more modern aircraft designs. Based pure on instinct, I wouldn't risk my life on one of these quirky biplanes. Great document though of an era gone by. Thanks!

[@THATSGRANDAD]

The Handley-Page ‘contraptions’ operated for Imperial Airways for nearly ten years during which time they clocked-up over 10,000,000 miles with minimal damage and no loss of life!

[@javiergilvidal1558]

@@THATSGRANDAD Exactly. The HP42 is one of the safest passenger aircraft in history!

[@AbelMcTalisker]

The HP42 wasn`t exactly "state of the art" for its time but they were going more for "safe, sturdy, dependable" with the design and, despite being a fixed landing gear biplane it did have some advanced features. Pity none of them survived WWII.

[@javiergilvidal1558]

@@AbelMcTalisker If I'm not wrong, the HP42 introduced the revolutionary Handley Page leading edge slats. The fixed undercarriage was only a seemingly backwards gesture: a fixed undercarriage made a lot of sense, given that the plane was expected to operate in many far-away, backward areas not likely to have extensive repairing facilities. Speed was desirable, but not a primary concern given the largest expected clientele for the airline, i. e. Empire high-ranking officials.

[@AbelMcTalisker]

@@javiergilvidal1558 I don`t think it was the first plane to actually have them though they were certainly one of the HP 42`s safety features.

[@declantwomey7525]

Brilliant thanks for shearing 👍🏻 🏆

[@davidwright8432]

I knew there was no radar in 1935, and wondered how air traffic control was managed. Now I have a better idea! I can (just!) remember some of the Morse Code the pilot was using. thanks! Those HP-42s were amazing to see. I also spotted what must be an early Douglas DC-3.The first plane I flew in almost 25 years later, age 14.

[@paulkirkland3263]

The bearing plotting board seen at 9:07 is still there, and in the same room too.

[@bigboy0625]

The UK was the first to do everything looking back at history. 🇬🇧🇬🇧👍👍

[@zen4men]

Most things! Lets not over-gild the lily! /

[@phaasch]

I've been looking for this for years. Thank you. The HP42s were the most amazing looking aircraft. Huge and luxurious. The whole working of this pre war transport hub is totally fascinating, particularly the primitive air traffic control system. What on earth is a "Goniometer", anyway? :)

[@martinusher1]

Its an old-fashioned radio direction finder. The original finder was a coil of wire on a frame (literally a "frame antenna") that you rotated to find the strongest or weakest signal -- the signal's strongest when the coil is perpendicular to the direction the signal's coming from. Since its inconvenient to rotate a large frame antenna what they used instead was a set of them, its the assembly that looks a bit like a spherical birdcage on the control tower. Each on of the set of antennas would be fed to a box with coil assemblies matching the antennas and in the middle of these coils would be another coil that's connected to the bearing control the operator is seen rotating. This gives the same effect as rotating a single coil, its just more convenient and accurate. The coil box is the 'Gniometer'

[@phaasch]

@@martinusher1 brilliant. Thanks for the detailed description, Martin. This really was cutting edge, wasn't it? The very beginning of air traffic control, before radar.

[@josephlambe2796]

Even a wire can resonate

[@robkunkel8833]

📽️🎞️A very good perspective of everyday older commercial aircraft. A great viewpoint. Thanks. This was the kind of film that would be shown to kids in school, when the teacher called in sick, too late to get a substitute. Somewhere in the first two minutes. some kids would male fart noises.

[@robkunkel8833]

… they used morse code as well. Navigator was busy.

[@Riverrockphotos]

Safety even in the early ages of aviation is just astounding. I would have liked to have known the turnaround time for when they got that plane into before it was ready for the engine rebuilds and all that.

[@coltur68066]

When the piston engines roaring subtitles writing "Music". And for me this is really music.

[@asteverino8569]

Wow 🤩 Similar to now but with advancements in technology all around. Still, the human factor is the same.

[@Saa42808]

Just fascinating.

[@FredBloggsTheThird]

How close were the ground crew when that plane parked up and they ran forwards under the props! 😲

[@markhancock7527]

Great film.

[@DRAGON.13]

nice bit of history, I live not far from Croydon airport went today to fly my DJ IMini 2

[@x4dd]

Great film......but the size of the steering wheel is something off the Titanic 😮

[@alexhayden2303]

My 1st flight was from here. (Moth.)

[@trucktalkvideos]

My favourite airliner...

[@hypercomms2001]

I live in Croydon.... And there's no airport where I live, but the view out the mountains is pretty damn good! Guess where?

[@TheRogey1]

USA

[@hypercomms2001]

@@TheRogey1 Nope… wrong country..

[@wilsonlaidlaw]

So sad that the RAF managed to destroy most of the remaining HP42 and HP45 aircraft, mostly by failing to tie them down properly in windy airfields.

[@richardstaples8621]

What is the plane seen in the closing credits? It differs from the HP42 in that it has its 4 engines mounted in-line between top & bottom wings, & has different tail.

[@DerekGM6]

Short L.17 Scylla

[@stewartellinson8846]

Such a shame that all of the interwar large airliners are gone; there's quite a few interesting ones here - the AW Atalanta, the Short Scylla, the HP42 (of course), the Fokker and Junkers trimotors and an early DC1? or DC3?? reconstructing one, even for ground display would be very expensive but it would be such a sight to see an HP 42 in the metal (and wire).

[@djspatrick]

Incredible to think each plane had a coal fire and a smoking lounge where passengers could sip port and listen to a string quartet. Talk about travelling in style!

[@blackvulcan100]

Correct me if I am wrong but I do not recall if any of these machines were involved in major air craft crashes, they may look ungainly but many with multiple engines they were reliable ? not sure how they would respond in very windy conditions though ?

[@rbrooks2007]

Wikipedia has a list of histories for each aircraft and many seemed to have met their ends through accident at various locations while in service with the RAF in 1940 by the looks of it.

[@timdavies5219]

Passenger flying in 1935 was a pretty hairy business. Everything was rather rudimentary- and dangerous!- in modern terms.

[@pwmiles56]

1:24 I'm worried, what's that flat screen doing on the right?

[@ffinybryn]

Did the pilot get to keep the green shield stamps?

[@daiichidoku]

3:04. "expert wheel washing technician". actually, i suppose this is to wash off clumps of dried mud so as to keep it from detaching and damaging the wing tail during takeoff? checking for leaks? just washing to be spiffy?

[@cremebrulee4759]

Flying was still a bit of an adventure.

[@tonyppe]

Anyone have a time machine? Can I go there for a few days? :)

[@punjabifreethinker2939]

😂😂 yes I too

[@Coltnz1]

Just make sure you have all the modern inoculations before you go.

[@tonyppe]

@@Coltnz1 Ah, that's why time travel isn't possible then

[@AlaGira-c5j]

@@Coltnz1 A time traveller would be inmune to most XXth century deseases. Real risk may be the other way around.

[@grahamthebaronhesketh.]

Was it pre war or pre posterous?

[@COIcultist]

Does anyone know what the ensign was that was flown from the Imperial Airways planes?

[@51WCDodge]

It was the Civil Air Ensign . Insituted 1931.

[@COIcultist]

@@51WCDodge Many thanks.

[@Swaggerlot]

ATC watch logs , some from earlier times than shown here, were (maybe still are) displayed in the lobby of the College of ATC at Bournemouth Airport. Many of the entries reported pilots making that most heinous of actions, turning right after landing!

[@melanieconnell4156]

Does the lovely main building still survive?

[@tomkent4656]

A small part remains, open to public a few times a year. Most of the old airport land is now a housing estate.

[@sudiptapanda2509]

Great

[@mikewa2]

Flying Dutchman-KLM 210 gallons 4 star please

[@johnday6392]

All the aircraft had square type windows which spelled doom when fitted to the first Comet jet aircraft.

[@markiliff]

~0:20 "…slightly shortened" ↑ I'd be fascinated to know what was cut… some obliging reference to that cheeky chappie Herr Hitler, perhaps?

[@51WCDodge]

Historical note: The term MAYDAY for a distress call was devised at Croydon Airport. The tower building is now preserved as a museum.

[@TS-1267]

... So Your A Croydonian I Take It... Nevertheless, I've Been Educated. CHEERS FOR THAT🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🥂🤔

[@tomkent4656]

And only open one day a month!

[@gmf121266]

"Mayday? That was months ago!!!" Tony Hancock, the radio ham.

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

Off Purley Way - the art deco old terminal building is still there - Aerodrome House or something it is called

[@AnthonyDineen]

Zing. It's Airport Hse. Aerodrome is the hotel next door.

[@BarryRudge]

Just imagine flying to Australia i one of those string bags, taking the best part of a week together with overnight stops in the stragest of places.

[@MCT954]

The HP42 didn't go all the way to Australia. Somewhere in the Middle East, you changed planes. By 1937-8, you could all the way in a Short Empire flying boat, from which the Sunderland used during World War Two was developed

[@BarryRudge]

@@MCT954 I am aware noi matter where they flew in these aircraft to all parts of the empire some of the locations were in the middle of nowhere. Far more exciting than today although the aircraft would not have been very comfortable.

[@oxcart4172]

I'm still annoyed that nobody talks about the replica HP-42 that was allegedly being built. It all just suddenly went quiet.

[@pachma405]

First I've heard of it.

[@FlyingForFunTrecanair]

There’s nothing to get annoyed about; the chap who proposed the replica was a complete Walter Mitty.

[@nopeyadayadayada1248]

These huge beauties took so much manpower, time and money to operate that its hard to believe it was profitable.

[@Obbsserver]

It wasn't profitable. Note that every airline featured here was nationalised. No Freddie Laker or Easyjet in those days.

[@vijaysankarkalita6093]

Those men/ women of that Era were more good looking and gorgeous as like those newly invented/ ever improving machines!✌

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

The workers used to live on Waddon housing estate, across the road from Croydon airport, built for it in the 1920's. Can spot them now, the dark red brick houses just off Purley Way. History, ey?

[@pauloakwood9208]

Honestly, who came up with the title for this video?

[@nemo6686]

It was uploaded on How Many Times Can You Put 'Film' In The Title Day.

[@DavidR_192]

"..first-ever film made film by the Shell Film Unit describing a day in the Croydon Airport". Think someone needs to work on the title of this video.

[@metalmagicrestoration3823]

You sound vaccinated! 😮

[@johng9399]

Back when Biplanes ruled, though not for much longer, and IFR meant, I Follow Roads!

[@ericwilliams2122]

😆😆😆The Fokkers are everywhere!!!

[@janvanhaaster2093]

F-12 F-36 F-22 :)

[@RayhanAhmed-qr3vz]

Laurel and Harry’s car pushing out aircraft from garage

[@geoffreylee5199]

Then came radar …

[@avalanche9026]

We should get back to basics. Fly by planes agai. Radial engines. To apreciate flight again. Damn it. Advanced world lost it do to technology. No longer exitment.

[@JessyP-u6q]

Imperial Imperial Imperial

[@madmaxmcinnes4102]

Had to have a laugh at the Junkers aircraft ........ still had the swastika on their tails🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@nemo6686]

A swastika, D-AMIT?

[@Shamrock100]

This was before the war so the symbol had yet to attain fully the status that was later attached to it. Not particularly funny, really.

[@jonlincoln6069]

Well considering that Germany used the swastika as their national flag from 1935 and this film is from that era not really funny is it

[@51WCDodge]

Today we fly in all smiling and map you. Later we come over and bomb you! Dc3 Ju 52 and the good old bi-plane pile of stings British HP42. Doesd make you wonder.

[@JessyP-u6q]

Frederick stanley mockford Frederick stanley mockford Frederick stanley mockford

[@1951timbo]

When people travelled in smart clothes. Unlike today where people don’t give a sh1t….

[@stewartellinson8846]

When only the VERY rich travelled

[@avalanche9026]

Thank Americans Britz learned how to fly. And learn how to make planes ? Now Britz are proud taking credits

[@basiltaylor8910]

Despite the poncy snooty commentary that really ground my gears the video is awesome as I love 1930,s fashion and aircraft the same way as a junkie a fresh bag of weed,. Two Fokker F-22,s a Wibault Trimotor, a Junkers Ju 52/3m brashly displaying a swastika on its tail fin and a Fokker F-7 Super Sport with two pitch Hamilton Standard Bracket propellers. Cherry on the cake oh wow a Douglas DC-2 Swissair that would not look out of place at Bristol Lulsgate. Video graphically shows how the British aero industry was so backward in coming forward, just look at the Handley Page 42 so anachronistic a left over from the first world war. This ariel joke created more drag than a Ru Paul,s piss up, on a good day the pilot might get ninety ninety five miles an hour. Swissair Douglas DC-2 cruises one hundred fifty without breaking a sweat.

[@janvanhaaster2093]

Not 2 Fokker F-22's but 1 F-36 and 1 F-22. The PH is the F-36, the other the F-22.

[@basiltaylor8910]

@@janvanhaaster2093 Thanks much appreciated with props spinning both types look alike, the F-36,sCurtiss Wright R-1820,s twirled three blade Hamilton Standards, the F-22 its smaller brother Pratt?Whittney R-1340,s twirling two blade Hamilton Standard props, identical to a Harvard. To keep your teddy in the pram , the Fokker F-7 Super Sport is an F-12 ,which in truth a sportier upgrade of the earlier model with Townend ring cowls Bendix wheel brakes and tailwheel.