Airport | Shell Historical Film Archive
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ธ.ค. 2023
- Step back in time to 1935 with the first-ever Shell Film Unit documentary, which provides a captivating glimpse into the bustling life at Croydon Airport, the primary international airport serving London at the time.
The film explores the intricacies of airport operations, showcasing the dedicated professionals who ensure the smooth functioning of this vital transportation hub.
Against the backdrop of Croydon Airport, the documentary highlights the essential role of meteorologists at the weather bureau. They diligently record and analyze local and international weather data to offer crucial advice to pilots on their flight routes. A weather board in the airport's main hall displays a real-time summary of the weather conditions, aiding in safe takeoffs and landings.
On the tarmac, skilled engineers inspect a 42-seat Handley Page aircraft, ensuring it is in optimal condition for flight. Meanwhile, a tanker refuels the aircraft, readying it for its next journey. The aircraft is towed to the embarkation point, where a small auxiliary motor starts each of its main engines in sequence. This aircraft is not just for passengers; it also carries cargo and mail, facilitating global distribution.
In sum, this historic documentary serves as a window into the bygone era of Croydon Airport, London's first major airport, which operated from 1920 until its closure in 1959. It not only captures the daily operations of the airport but also preserves the memories of the people and the aircraft that played a pivotal role in early 20th-century aviation history.
For more information about Shell’s Historic Film Archive please contact: filmservices@shell.com
#Shell #ShellFilmUnit #HistoricFilmArchive #Documentary #History #Airport #Croydon #CroydonAirport
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Shell’s surprising and captivating Historic Film Archive dates from 1934 and covers a rich mix of topics from technology, science and engineering to craftsmanship, motorsport and travelogue.
The Shell Film Unit, responsible for the content, was a highly celebrated part of Britain’s Documentary Movement. Key figures from that movement were involved, including: Jack Beddington, Edgar Anstey, Arthur Elton, John Grierson, Kay Mander, Stuart Legg and Douglas Gordon.
Its films were wide reaching, often screened in cinemas and through the non-theatric film distribution circuit, which brought film to educational establishments and organisations across the UK. While many films covered technological themes related to Shell’s activities, others were entirely unrelated and served purely to educate the general public.
As Shell innovated in technologies that would provide oil and gas products for the world, the Shell Film Unit also innovated in the technological advancement of film, incorporating graphics and different forms of animation as early as the 1930s.
During WW2 the Shell Film Unit was co-opted into war effort, making films for the Ministry of Information’s film division. Its prowess in technological documentary suited the MoI’s need for technical training films.
While the name and the medium has changed many times over the years, the documentary tradition lives on at Shell. Its contemporary film team is part of Shell’s multi-disciplinary in-house agency, Creative Solutions. It continues making award-winning factual content that informs and educates the public, now usually released on social media platforms. - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
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Absolutely amazing footages. I’m a 33-year aerospace engineer to this day and this is the first time I see this 42-seater Handley! How embarrassing! The previous episode 1950 “air port” was also amazing; those Constellations are so beautiful! Thanks for uploading.
yes the old 42 had to factor in wind speed as sometimes the headwinds were too much for the biplane to make it. The uk really loved biplanes during this time.
the connie , the most beautiful prop airliner ever made. i was so lucky to watch these as a boy, such a good time to grow up in.
If you think the HP 42 is bulky you should see British 'airliners' from just before. The Handley Page was a greyhound compared to a fat donkey by comparison. Myth has it that a US airline exec complained the British airlines made more money from selling passengers alcohol than tickets, because their planes were so slow. I think that's b/s, but 'leisurely' was definitely how the British did many things.
Handley Page HP42 Heracles.👏👏👏 Thank you for this beautiful souvenir video! It was the beginning of
aviation! This plane was impressive! Thank you for also showing the maintenance of the engines by the technicians! Another beautiful page from the flight aviation!
I lived in the U.A.E in the early 1970's, and the old Sharjah airport🦋 used to be one of the stopovers for the Imperial Airways east bound Handley Pages on their way to India and Australia. On one side of the desert airport was a fortress, which served as a motel for travel weary passengers - the rooms and halls would have been airconditioned and provided with those period ceiling fans. Those were times when marauding tribesmen were out and about but that place was very secure. 🐝Twenty kms away, Dubai also was a stopover point but for the Imperial Airways flying boats, which landed on its creek. All this was in the 1920's, 30's. There are archive films on YT about that airport, good viewing for history and nostalgia.🌿
That brought back some memories, especially the flashing beacon at 15:25. It was on the corner of the hangar I worked in and at lunchtimes in the summer I'd climb up there and have my sandwich peering out over the airfield. Happy days.
I like to see the way people lived in the past, very elegant the people who used to travel by plane in those days. Greetings from Nogales Sonora México.
A wonderful documentary film and a piece of early aviation history between the wars. Just four years later the country once more would be at war with much advances in aircraft design and into the jet age and rocket technology. Thank you Shell for making this film.
Something out of the film, Things to Come. A heroic feeling to this gem.
These old documentaries have a magical optimism to them. It must have been so exciting but the technology looks so inadequate and fragile compared to today.
Much respect for the British for advancing aviation. Plus I love their accent! Hello from sunny and warm St. Petersburg, Florida.
Nobody cares where you are from
And no, I am not jealous, as I am Lauderdale snowbird
So how old is Clearwater? Is there an aviation museum near you?
Hello from Blighty 🇬🇧🇺🇲👍
How good is that film . I made the Croydon airport for x plane nearly only based of 2 photographs i found. Now i see it in action and can remidel the airport. So many thanks for that jewel of cinematic
My Mother worked there in 1956,as a kid I spent a lot of time roaming around the airport,good years for a kid.
My father, born 1922 , lived directly opposite the aerodrome.
During WW11 he organised dances at the airport Hotel and met my mother there....
Great video. We need more video footage on Croydon Airport! For such an important part of british aviation history its unrepresented.
It's still there you can see the airport buildings and runway
@@markylon You have to go looking though, at least I did decades ago, before smart phones. I've looked it up and it now has a 'micro museum' and is open on the first Sunday of the month. Not a very bright light for visitors.
My aunt’s father, Frederick Stanley Mockford, devised the Mayday call while working as the senior radio officer at Croydon in the 1920s. He was later to work for the Marconi company.
Fascinating video, thanks...!
What a galumphing beast that handley page was, their crew must have melted into the ground with shame when a douglas or a junkers taxied by... or flew by at twice the speed...
Not a fair comparison really. The speed of aircraft development was fast and furious between the wars, the Junkers and the DC2 were much smaller than the HP42. The latter was the largest ever plane when first flown, and the challenges of upscaling are evident in the design. The HP certainly looks from a different era, but still had 3 times the passenger capacity of the much newer DC2. I suspect the crews were quite happy flying the behemoth of the time, and it was British after all.
@@thesmallerhalf1968 hmm, scaling up old designs rarely works better than a new one, especially at that time of fast paced developments….
hp carried 24 pax, and dc2 14…. cruise 100 vs 190…. I’m still pretty sure the hp pilots experienced some embarrassment:)
Wow, what a wonderful film.
The narrator Carleton Hobbes was a big star in radio in those days . After WW2 and the arrival of TV to replace radio as the mass medium of the air he retained his celebrity status by playing Sherlock Holmes in radio drama’s adaptations of Conan Doyle’s stories with Norman Shelley as his Dr Watson : they were both also leading characters in the famous children’s drama “Toytown” but I can’t remember which characters they were in that. And I speak as someone who used to watch the planes land at Croydon - sometimes as many as four or five a day - from the balcony of our house on Duppas Hill
The Swiss were ahead of the pack, with their sleek, streamlined Douglas aircraft.
Isn't it amazing how much the DC-3 stuck out? And even more amazing is that some of them are still flying in commercial service. It's timeless engineering!
@@Oliver-kf5cy That was actually a DC-2 ;) No DC-3's in this video yet.
My sincere thanks for sharing it.🙏🏼
When I was a young bloke I was thrown off the disused Croydon aerodrome for trying to fly a free flight model powered by a whopping 1cc engine. Just as well as it would probably flown over the Purley way busy main road. On revisiting the site many years later I discovered that the. Croydon council still ban model aircraft on their 1/3 of it but the Sutton and Cheam council are happy for radio control flying to happen on their 2/3rds so long as one does not fly over Croydon's bit! The place still has a great sense of nostalgia though so thanks for the video.
One of my Wakefield class free flights overflew O'Hare airport. I launched from a field west of the field and it landed in the back yard of a town just east of O'Hare.
1935 the year my parents were married and bought their house not far from Croydon Airport. Not realising the Lufthansa pilots were learning the approaches to London for war just 4 short years later. A fighter station that had the chimneys of bordering houses trimmed when a damaged heavy bomber tried an emergency landing. All built over now.
7:38 And we see the Swastika on the tail of the Lufthansa, the emblem seen on the German Airforce, which would make the bombing runs by the end of the decade...?
Most interesting, thank you . 50.000 miles T.B.O , and gallon’s of oil burned, good business for Shell .
Outstanding
Amazing.
This year really shows how far developed aviation had become. Makes me wonder how the first flights got going, the first pairs of runways got built and how passengers were induced to fly. Recently I found a family photo print of a passenger plane in 1928 - quite surprising to see a 'now-normal' event occur.
Great to watch
I live in Calcutta (now rechristened as Kolkata) so it felt great seeing it getting spotted on the map of the planes' routes. Have been so hooked up to the videos on this channel!!!
The amazing HP 42s
This is really cool.
great film. As a small boy did my plane spotting at Croydon airport. Michael
Must have been grim during the pea-soupers without blind landing aids.
thank you very much for this comment.!.The stops of that time, were still few and far between!.the global network was taking shape!people from all nations already loved aviation..However, among the respected "dinausores" of this glorious era, this particular plane fascinated me..I have a 33-year experience in aviation..as a technician..I finished my career on the A320!but, I would like one or more developers to produce this veteran of the good years
5:01 - Notice how they retract the flag before setting off!
Very enjoyable. Flying to Australia was very intrepid back in those days, a lot of the route not close to civilsation, including the final destination ( only kidding Aussie brothers :) ).
Strange to think that 5 years after that film was done a different sort of flying was predominant in SE England. The swastika on the tail of that Junkers a portent of things to come. It was seen as perfectly natural back when this was filmed of course.
Nice information
The Heracles to me look like slow lumbering dinosaurs taking off compared to the monoplanes.. What an exciting time in aviation. The white main building of Croyon Airport still stands alongside the A23 Purley Way.
Wow
Edward Anstey was the genius behind all the BTI railway movies.
Luckily no runaways to align with...😊....even the natzi plane went there those times...to come back with bombs a few years later...History is amazing...
Info.The site was eventually built on in 1965/69. About 1600 dwellings built by Croydon and Sutton councils as a joint venture. All road names were airport related ie Heracles Close, Brabazon Ave etc . Mostly still standing.
Croydon was not the first UK international airport, that was Hounslow Heath. 🤷♂
Imagine filming with with a film camera in 1935 08:25
The ten gallon requirement for fill-ups is too much. I don't want my needle near empty.
Require five gallons and twice the number.
That this thing actually can fly..😳
The wonder of the world doesn't fail to impress ,just wish more people would appreciate life's wonderful technology and stop moaning 👌🌻🌈
I would like to transcribe or dub the films to the Brazilian Portuguese,
7:31 Batavia
What was the accident rate 90 years ago? All that hand navigation... weather info being relayed... And that radial engine maintenance! Yikes
The HP 42s only had one fatal accident. Yes, statistically that's bad, but I'd feel safer in one of those than a modern airliner any day.
Then passenger aircraft were much: fewer; slower; shorter ranged. Bad visibility then was a potential killer, but short range meant any aircraft had less chance of deviation; and the clumsy '3 point baring' was good enough to get the few craft landing, to near the aerodrome with it's 'bright' lights. On the other hand if there are almost no other aircraft there's almost no danger of collision.
ADF I heard of. Gonadometer, not so much.
I am the first comment
Yes you are :-)
@@shelldisgusting
@@pvpcatz Touch grass
Did anyone spot the German junkers taking off with its rear insignia… lol
Yep
Shell means smell ...😮
Marvel
Maybe a bit more effort into your titles. Great video but... Airport?
That is the original title of the documentary
I grew up just across the Purley Way. We always called it Croydon Aerodrome. That was in the late 1950's early 1960's.
OK, SNOWFLAKE.
@@johannesbols57 thank u for your service.
Up yourself@@johannesbols57
❤😂😂🎉🎉😂😂❤❤😂🎉🎉😂😂❤❤😂😂🎉
Rather not fly in the Haracles old bean, not for all the tea in China.
Из Австралии от собак динго прикольно на таком барахле звенящем лететь деревянном с палками под крыльями там сервис сто процентов отсутствовал и туалет как в поезде😂😢
Stop Destroying Our World...
Shell made great films- but that was then .....
Just saying..
89 years ago, it just doesn't look real🤣. On a more sober note, how quickly we have progressed in such a few fleeting years.
Most interesting, thank you . 50.000 miles T.B.O , and gallon’s of oil burned, good business for Shell .