Farnborough Airshow 1949 - in colour

Colour home film shot by my grandfather in September 1949.

[@Tirana44]

Amazing! A priceless piece of aviation history.

[@Spawn-td8bf]

Absolutely wonderful!!!! Thank you for posting and sharing. What a rare treasure!

[@kyotokid4]

...amazing, the Viscount prototype, an Airspeed Ambassador, the Air Horse prototype. This is priceless.

[@mtcc75]

Stunning ...just STUNNING !!!! Thanks for sharing

[@alastairbeaton5245]

What an amazing piece of film! Vickers Viscount (taxiing, 0:20); Handley Page Hermes (0:30); Bristol Freighter (1:00); Airspeed Ambassador (reverse taxiing, 1:40); Short Solent (flypast); Boulton Paul Balliol (2:00); Percival Prince (2:15); Supermarine Seagull (2:30); Cierva Air Horse (2:45); Westland Wyvern (3:00) and Armstrong Whitworth Apollo (3:30).

[@missasinenomine]

Thank you very much! You must be an expert! I thought it was a Sunderland @1:55. A pity we only had 1 second to see it! But you say, a Solent. I'd never heard of a Supermarine Seagull before. Nice!

[@neiloconnell2120]

At 3.02 there is an early Wyvern taking off - outstanding of your Grandfather. I loved the policeman's uniform :) Thanks for this. A great little movie just four years post war.

[@barrykevinflewitt5322]

A priceless film, thanks for sharing.

[@EricIrl]

Fantastic bit of footage. Lovely to see colour from that era. The Ambassador taxying backwards was impressive.

[@flairbird1965]

Priceless stuff! Many thanks.

[@kolbpilot]

That kid at the end holding the flying schedule would be in his 70s now. Wonderful colour clip.

[@Davidcallard]

It's possible my father was flying the Canberra or other aircraft this day. He was Squadron Leader Arthur E. Callard, DFC, AFC. He won the AFC for flying the first non-stop jet crossing of the Atlantic in 1952 flying a Canberra bomber. He subsequently became an RAF Test Pilot based in Farnborough.

[@d920cwc]

My father has another film of the military aircraft - same length, filmed on the same day. But it is still on celluloid. When he eventually gets it digitised I will upload it here.

[@troysvisualarts]

Fantastic film, there's a few B&W films of this airshow but seeing it in colour is totally awesome! :D I only wish though the person who filmed it filmed the De Havilland Comet passenger jet prototype, that would of been awesome to see but I guess the film ran out before it took off. Anyways totally enjoyed watching this, thanks for uploading! :)

[@SuperPeaking]

When Britain ruled the air ! Great video !!!

[@barbarybar]

Excellent! Better than some of the B&W official films.

[@westonwindsorian]

great stuff

[@mrandrossguy9871]

Reverse thrust in the 40s ! I need to read up on my aviation history!

[@26harmo]

@Proplinerman The seaplane is a Supermarine Seagull ASR.1

[@Shmey]

Having grown up in the '80's, it's difficult to contextualize these aircraft as brand-new or state-of-the-art. There was a time when both of these terms apply, and not a jet was flown.

[@richuar]

Fantastic footage, thanks for sharing. Great to see a Wyvern TF 2 in motion and in colour too! Couple of other identifications to note, that's a Short Sandringham rather than a Sunderland and could that be an Avro Athena rather than a Balliol? (they do look pretty identical mind you!)

[@richuar]

My mistake it's a Short Solent according to a list I just found of aircraft at the show in '49...must revise my flying boats!

[@majtheking]

yOUR gRANDFATHER MUST'VE BEEN ONE INTERESTING MAN

[@2late2stop]

Wonder what the column of smoke off in the distance is when the Westland Wyvern is taking off? 3:11

[@skooter2767k]

2late2stop probably a Cirrus crashed there

[@warjacare]

Long time ago, when the British Empire existed.

[@missasinenomine]

3:15 Did something crash? whoops!

[@christianschwender675]

guess they had to choose between color or sound !

[@jari2018]

on moderm film the sound is recorded between the holes in film - they didnt have small enough hardware and detail or batteries since batteries are a must for recording sound and mic .. it would have been enormous like a popsicle

[@mwilliams836]

Wheres the sound?

[@JBofBrisbane]

mwilliams836 home movie outfits with sound were probably a couple of decades away at that stage.

[@Allegheny580]

Awesome! Do you or anyone else know all of those types? Apart from what looks like the Viscount prototype, a Shorts Sunderland (I think) and the Hawker Sea Fury, this American cannot identify the others. (and I'm usually good at these things!)