Engineering:Conquest of the Air

Short description: British aviation film

Conquest of the Air
Directed by	Zoltan Korda John Monk Saunders Alexander Esway William Cameron Menzies Alexander Shaw Peter Bezencenet
Produced by	Alexander Korda
Written by	John Monk Saunders Hugh Gray Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Starring	Laurence Olivier
Narrated by	Charles Frend
Music by	Arthur Bliss
Cinematography	Wilkie Cooper George Noble Hans Schneeberger Lee Garmes
Edited by	Peter Bezencenet Charles Frend Richard Q. McNaughton
Production company	Alexander Korda Productions
Distributed by	London Films (UK)
Release date	December 1936 (UK)
Running time	71 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Conquest of the Air is a 1936 documentary film or docudrama on the history of aviation up to that time. The film features historical footage, and dramatic re-creations, of the developments of commercial and military aviation; including the early stages of technology developments in design, propulsion, and air navigation aids. The film was a London Films production, commissioned by the British Air Ministry.

Cast

• Frederick Culley as Roger Bacon
• Laurence Olivier as Vincent Lunardi
• Franklin Dyall as Jerome de Ascoli
• Henry Victor as Otto Lilienthal
• Hay Petrie as Tiberius Cavallo
• John Turnbull as Ferdinand Von Zeppelin
• Charles Lefeaux as Louis Bleriot
• Bryan Powley as Sir George Cayley
• Alan Wheatley as Giovanni Alfonso Borelli
• John Abbott as Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier

Production background

The film was initially commissioned by Alexander Korda prior to the advent of World War II, and the Air Ministry saw the value in promoting Britain's contribution and leadership in aviation during this period. Some notable footage is featured of the early phases of automated flight, navigational equipment, and the transitions between civil and military developments, including heavy bombers; fast fighter aircraft; and the advent of naval aviation (aircraft carrier), plus the initial experiments with vertical rotary flight (helicopters).

An updated version was released in 1940 and released in the United States on 20 May 1940.

See also

• List of films in the public domain in the United States

External links

• Conquest of the Air on IMDb
• Conquest of the Air at AllMovie
• Conquest of the Air at the TCM Movie Database