1960 Boeing 747 Construction and Testing (Silent)

Decade: 1960

A film showing how a Boeing 747 passenger aircraft is constructed and tested, before it is ready to take passengers. Opening shot of the sun setting/rising behind a large passenger aircraft. Engineers in overalls performing tests on the aircraft equipment. Plane flies overhead of the camera, raising its wheels as it does so. Fast cuts of aircraft wheels, aircraft on runway, engineers standing on runway watching planes. We see a man at drawing board, designing aircraft. There is a skeleton of an aircraft being tested in very large hangar, testing for the flex of the aircraft's wings. An aircraft is being driven in a circular motion in a desert/airbase, aircraft takes off. Plane comes... Read more A film showing how a Boeing 747 passenger aircraft is constructed and tested, before it is ready to take passengers. Opening shot of the sun setting/rising behind a large passenger aircraft. Engineers in overalls performing tests on the aircraft equipment. Plane flies overhead of the camera, raising its wheels as it does so. Fast cuts of aircraft wheels, aircraft on runway, engineers standing on runway watching planes. We see a man at drawing board, designing aircraft. There is a skeleton of an aircraft being tested in very large hangar, testing for the flex of the aircraft's wings. An aircraft is being driven in a circular motion in a desert/airbase, aircraft takes off. Plane comes in to land and the wheel catches fire, a fire vehicle drives toward the plane, firemen with hoses douse the wheel with water and the fire goes out. There are some men with cleaning equipment washing the exterior of the plane. A man climbs inside one of the engines of the plane. There is a shot of the plane moving off, with a large crowd standing by, it appears to be like the maiden flight of the plane. A man conducts teenagers playing in a band. Men in an observation tower watch a plane drive along a runway. Camera moves to down on the runway where a man is checking the tyres of the plane. A plane comes in to land on a runway, the plane lands and moves from right to left of the camera. There is a shot of the plane sitting stationary on the runway, with the setting sun behind the plane, creating a silhouette effect of the plane.

Cut to an open, arid, desert like area, where a white car moves from left to the centre of the picture, two men are standing on the back of the car. One man gets down from the car and goes toward what appears to be a weather vane.

Cut to a shot from a plane in flight, the camera looks down from the plane and the silhouette of the plane on the ground is visible, the plane then comes in to land. There follows another shot of a 747 from the air, the plane is flying over the sea, with coastline clearly visible in the background. There is an interior shot of men sitting at a table monitoring the flight of the plane using different machinery. We then see another shot of the front of a 747, sideways on from the air. There is a shot showing the inside of the cockpit of the plane and the equipment in there, including the air conditioning. Men are shown sitting in the aircraft seats monitoring the conditions of the plane, occasionally making notes on paper. There follows a shot of the 747 taking off, with the camera positioned behind the plane, so that the wheels are clearly visible as the plane takes off. We see a front shot of the plane coming in to land on the runway.

There are interior shots of men and women sitting at equipment. There are then some sideways shots of a plane moving from right to left of the camera on the runway, being signalled by a man with paddles. We then see shot of a man getting off the plane onto the runway and being met by some other men in suits. A close up shot of one man in a dark suit giving a speech. A final shot of the 747 moving at speed along a runway from left to right of camera, taking off, with the camera following the plane from directly behind as it soars into the sky.