0:00:03 > 0:00:08In the 1950s, the famous newsreel company Pathe produced a major
0:00:08 > 0:00:11historical documentary series for British television.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15Made by the award-winning producer Peter Baylis
0:00:15 > 0:00:18and narrated by an illustrious line-up of celebrated actors,
0:00:18 > 0:00:21Time To Remember chronicled the social, cultural,
0:00:21 > 0:00:26and political forces that shaped the first half of the 20th century.
0:00:27 > 0:00:32In a variety of episodes, the series covered the dramatic rise of the flying machine.
0:00:32 > 0:00:36The triumphs and disasters experienced by the early fliers
0:00:36 > 0:00:41offer a fascinating perspective on a pioneering time.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12Things, faces, friends, places.
0:01:12 > 0:01:14Years and moments hard forgotten.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18Laughs, fears, songs, tears.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20Memories are made of this.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26CLOCK CHIMES
0:01:43 > 0:01:47The first half of the 20th century witnessed enormous progress
0:01:47 > 0:01:50in one of humanity's greatest endeavours -
0:01:50 > 0:01:52the conquest of the skies.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55Previously, there had been successful experiments with balloons,
0:01:55 > 0:01:57but with the dawn of the new century,
0:01:57 > 0:02:02the pioneers of aviation design took great strides towards the development
0:02:02 > 0:02:05of the world's first heavier-than-air flying machines.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10But initially, the wondrous new machine-powered aircraft
0:02:10 > 0:02:14co-existed with the old inflatable means of flight.
0:02:14 > 0:02:18There were many still that put their faith in gas bags.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21The silent, dignified, almost pompous, round balloons
0:02:21 > 0:02:23still held the attention of thousands.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29With them, a new sport -
0:02:29 > 0:02:30balloon jumping.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33What goes up must come down.
0:02:33 > 0:02:34Or does it?
0:02:44 > 0:02:47Yes, in every field there must be pioneers.
0:02:51 > 0:02:56Something not done before and, frankly, I don't think ever since.
0:02:56 > 0:03:01But in everything, there has to be a first time.
0:03:04 > 0:03:09The Pioneer Era - that is how the time of experimentation
0:03:09 > 0:03:12from 1900 to 1914 came to be known.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16Tales of the wilder exploits of the early aviators were often met with disbelief
0:03:16 > 0:03:21and reports of the first successful flight by a heavier-than-air machine
0:03:21 > 0:03:22were greeted with scepticism.
0:03:22 > 0:03:27At the time, the newspaper editors
0:03:27 > 0:03:33just didn't believe the stories about what was going on at this place...
0:03:33 > 0:03:34What's it called?
0:03:34 > 0:03:36Kitty Hawk.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38The Brothers Wright.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42Heck, the guys claim to actually fly
0:03:42 > 0:03:45in a machine heavier than air.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49It stands to reason, without gas bags or something like that,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52it just can't be done.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54What do they think they are,
0:03:54 > 0:03:56birds or something?
0:03:56 > 0:03:59The boss sent a man down to Kitty Hawk.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02You know, just for the laughs.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06He saw Wilbur Wright take his seat
0:04:06 > 0:04:08in a complicated arrangement
0:04:08 > 0:04:12of wood and wire and bicycle chains.
0:04:13 > 0:04:15And then...
0:04:18 > 0:04:21"Sure, boss, sure, I want to keep my job.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25"I'm telling you the guy actually flew. Yeah.
0:04:25 > 0:04:30"Flew round and round and round just like a bird."
0:04:42 > 0:04:48The trail that the Wrights had blazed is wide open to a host of pioneers.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52Grahame White, a great name in British aviation.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55Gustav Hamel, the German.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58Yes, the list is long and distinguished.
0:05:00 > 0:05:02Pegoud, the Frenchman,
0:05:02 > 0:05:05the first man in the world to loop the loop.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16Latham - mechanical failure robbed him
0:05:16 > 0:05:20of being the first to fly the Channel and to make it a British achievement.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26Cody, Bleriot, Brabazon.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30Nothing can stop such air-crazy heroes.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33For them, the sky was the limit.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46At an air display in the United States,
0:05:46 > 0:05:49the new sport comes in for high-level patronage.
0:05:50 > 0:05:55As one of the Wrights demonstrates what he and his plane can do,
0:05:55 > 0:05:58he arouses the interest of none other
0:05:58 > 0:06:01than President Theodore Roosevelt himself.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04A few more spectacular dives and swoops
0:06:04 > 0:06:06and the President has made up his mind.
0:06:10 > 0:06:15Heedless of those who express doubts, he takes his seat in the Wrights' plane.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19If they can do it, so can he, at least as a passenger.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40A short hop and history is made again by the Wrights.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43Congratulations rain on the President,
0:06:43 > 0:06:48the first head of any state to fly in an aeroplane.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51"Well, done, sir! Great news."
0:06:51 > 0:06:55But it was some time before the aeroplane was used as a weapon of war.
0:06:55 > 0:06:57It was Germany's enormous dirigibles
0:06:57 > 0:07:01that took part in the first-ever aerial bombing raids on Britain.
0:07:01 > 0:07:051916. I remember over Paris and London
0:07:05 > 0:07:08the German airships, the Zeppelins.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14When brought to earth, Zeppelins usually ended up as so much twisted scrap,
0:07:14 > 0:07:18but once in a while, one came down more or less intact.
0:07:18 > 0:07:23The super-Zeppelins, as they were called, were not much smaller than some Atlantic liners.
0:07:23 > 0:07:29Displacing something like 50 tonnes of air, they held 2 million cubic feet of highly inflammable hydrogen.
0:07:29 > 0:07:34Attached to this enormous gas bag were six engines of about 250 horsepower each.
0:07:34 > 0:07:39They were fitted with silencers, yet you could hear 'em miles away.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47But as the Great War continued, engineers on both sides
0:07:47 > 0:07:51were determined to unlock the military potential of the new winged aircraft.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55At first, aeroplanes were mainly used for reconnaissance,
0:07:55 > 0:07:59but soon these still fragile machines would be transformed
0:07:59 > 0:08:02into fully functioning offensive weapons of war.
0:08:02 > 0:08:06In another field as yet taken seriously only by a few,
0:08:06 > 0:08:08there is activity.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10The Royal Flying Corps has been born,
0:08:10 > 0:08:14forerunner of the Royal Air Force.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18Wood, wire, string and intrepid hearts -
0:08:18 > 0:08:22what a joke to the more conservative military minds.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27But who in 1915 took air power all that seriously?
0:08:31 > 0:08:35The wood and dope structures that popped into the air that spring
0:08:35 > 0:08:39usually confined themselves to crude photography and artillery spotting.
0:08:39 > 0:08:43Their only weapons, the pistols carried by pilots
0:08:43 > 0:08:46in case of an encounter with the enemy.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52War had set technical development a cracking pace.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55Machines and equipment were changing week by week.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01The innovation of the machine gun firing through the propeller
0:09:01 > 0:09:04had set the pattern of fighter warfare for years to come.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07Aim the plane to kill.
0:09:09 > 0:09:14In '17, a cousin of mine was a cadet in the Royal Flying Corps.
0:09:14 > 0:09:18He remembers Prince Albert, later to become King George VI,
0:09:18 > 0:09:21watching their antics at an English south coast town.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25There were hundreds of them sporting the white cap flashes
0:09:25 > 0:09:28that marked trainee pilots and all flying-crazy.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30The Royal Flying Corps,
0:09:30 > 0:09:35parent of what was one day to become the Royal Air Force.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38My cousin is always saying what a sausage machine the whole thing was.
0:09:38 > 0:09:43It had to be if German superiority were to be challenged seriously.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47After only a few weeks, but too few, you collected your helmet and gear
0:09:47 > 0:09:49and declared yourself ready for anything.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53"Anything" means flying day after day in contraptions that would make
0:09:53 > 0:09:57many present day pilots catch their breath, let alone fly.
0:09:59 > 0:10:04But day after day those contraptions were improving, becoming better armed and better powered.
0:10:04 > 0:10:09The air development of only a few months of that war would have needed years in peace time.
0:10:10 > 0:10:14After the war, the development of the aeroplane would continue apace,
0:10:14 > 0:10:19enabling aviators to fly further and faster than ever before.
0:10:19 > 0:10:25But to many, it was not the aeroplane that represented the future for mass passenger transit.
0:10:25 > 0:10:30In 1929, we were looking up into the sky at shapes like this.
0:10:30 > 0:10:35Airships. And a lot of people thought they had a big future.
0:10:35 > 0:10:41After their lighter-than-air jobs of the war, the Germans continued to develop airships in the peace.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45The Graf Zeppelin always seemed to be coming or going.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50There was a lot in favour of airships, so the people who believed in them said.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53For example, there was space in them.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59The crew could even climb out and tackle an engine in flight.
0:11:03 > 0:11:08All modern conveniences, hot and cold water and all the gas they could possibly need.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11Only I suppose it was more than your life was worth to strike a match.
0:11:15 > 0:11:20The air was limitless and so the air could promise anything.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26But with the progress, dreadfully sobering failures.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29An airship named the R101,
0:11:29 > 0:11:33a ship carrying with her a nation's aeronautic future.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38Beauvais, France, 1930.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43The end of what was to have been an epic flight to India.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47On board, the air minister and the best airship brains a nation possessed.
0:11:50 > 0:11:57Only a few lucky enough to be in a gondola torn off by a tree escaped.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01In the early hours of that historic Sunday morning,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04the fate of the R101 was a story that few believed,
0:12:04 > 0:12:08but there in a field at Beauvais was the dreadful proof.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17The bodies they found, so badly burnt as to be unrecognisable,
0:12:17 > 0:12:18they brought back to England
0:12:18 > 0:12:21and there at Cardington, the airship's base,
0:12:21 > 0:12:26they laid them to rest in a common grave.
0:12:26 > 0:12:28For British airships, the end,
0:12:28 > 0:12:33and for those who sailed with such high hopes, the end too.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37But though they'd failed, they had not died in vain.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39The lesson had been learned.
0:12:39 > 0:12:40GUNFIRE SALUTE
0:12:48 > 0:12:51For whatever had happened to the R101,
0:12:51 > 0:12:55the air was still full of the powerful roar of engines,
0:12:55 > 0:12:57still full of limitless promise.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01Over the twisted metal in a field of northern France,
0:13:01 > 0:13:05the London-Paris airliners dipped their wings in salute
0:13:05 > 0:13:08and then went on their safe, inevitable way.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13While it was the end of Britain's love affair with the airship,
0:13:13 > 0:13:18it would take another high-profile disaster to put the commercial airship industry
0:13:18 > 0:13:19out of business for good.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22This is a German airship, Hindenburg,
0:13:22 > 0:13:27largest and most impressive of all lighter-than-air craft.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31The United States had refused to sell Germany helium for their ship.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35She had to make do with thousands of cubic feet of inflammable hydrogen.
0:13:37 > 0:13:39The place is Lakehurst, New Jersey,
0:13:39 > 0:13:43where the Hindenburg arrives after her Atlantic flight.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47Over the field she cruises for three hours while making vain attempts
0:13:47 > 0:13:49to bring her tail up to the level of her nose.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57Ballast is dropped again and again, but in vain.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08Then she drops her mooring ropes and...
0:14:10 > 0:14:13SCREAMING
0:14:26 > 0:14:28Death of an airship and, in truth,
0:14:28 > 0:14:30death for all airships,
0:14:30 > 0:14:34because from this blazing moment they lost any hope of a future.
0:14:41 > 0:14:46Though the dream of mass travel by airship died that day in 1937,
0:14:46 > 0:14:48the skies were busier than ever.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53After the aeroplane's rapid development during the war,
0:14:53 > 0:14:58it was now all set to show the world just what making contact really meant.
0:14:58 > 0:15:03Ross and Keith Smith made a record-breaking flight to Australia.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07A young man named Hawker, forced down in the Atlantic,
0:15:07 > 0:15:09had the luck to be picked up by a passing ship
0:15:09 > 0:15:13and the world had the luck to keep a great aircraft designer.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16A British Handley Page bomber
0:15:16 > 0:15:19sits on its nose in a remote bog in Ireland
0:15:19 > 0:15:22and no-one takes much notice.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24That's the way when history is made.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28For though the crash landing had been in Ireland,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31the takeoff had been in distant Newfoundland.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35For Alcock and Brown, the quiet, almost unsung, glory
0:15:35 > 0:15:41of being the first ever to span the Atlantic in a machine heavier than air.
0:15:41 > 0:15:47Later, a grateful nation cheered them when these two left Windsor Castle
0:15:47 > 0:15:50after being knighted by George V for their great exploit.
0:15:50 > 0:15:56For Alcock, alas, death in less than a year while on another flight.
0:15:58 > 0:16:03But the trails of pioneers become the high roads of the common man.
0:16:03 > 0:16:08Here's the first air service between London and Paris,
0:16:08 > 0:16:09established in 1919.
0:16:09 > 0:16:14It was chancy, irregular and the victim of every puff of wind that blew,
0:16:14 > 0:16:18but it was the first, and since its inception, there's been no looking back.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21The passengers on this occasion,
0:16:21 > 0:16:26models bringing to Britain the very latest from Paris.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30This could surely be called the height of fashion.
0:16:30 > 0:16:35It's the way with all new marvels that they become the target and toys
0:16:35 > 0:16:38of buffoons and stunt merchants.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42Hang upside-down, walk the wings, mount the tail,
0:16:42 > 0:16:45sit anywhere, in fact, except in the cockpit.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52And when that palled, be the first to be shaved in mid-air.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56Shaved or married or something.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00Nothing was too difficult or too crazy to be attempted.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03Pick up a hat from the ground without landing.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07Personally, I've never been that pushed for head gear.
0:17:09 > 0:17:13But any bridge or arch was a must, absolutely.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20And the more famous the structure, the better.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23Yes, the Arc de Triomphe.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25With only a foot or so clearance
0:17:25 > 0:17:27for the wing tips.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30Nothing ventured, nothing won.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34In this case, no regular service followed up.
0:17:35 > 0:17:40Though still in its infancy, the aeroplane had swiftly established itself
0:17:40 > 0:17:43as a commercially-viable transport option.
0:17:43 > 0:17:49The dream of mass passenger travel by heavier-than-air machines had become a reality.
0:17:50 > 0:17:52This was an airliner of the period,
0:17:52 > 0:17:55lumbering to our eyes, but astonishingly efficient.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01Already we had airports.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05This was Croydon - a bright, gleaming, new field for London.
0:18:09 > 0:18:14A tower, passenger reception, customs area, control, weather section.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17Yes, the pattern was already there,
0:18:17 > 0:18:21and it was all working as smoothly and safely as taking a bus.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34Paris, Zurich, Amsterdam -
0:18:34 > 0:18:39those great European cities were already well and truly linked with Croydon.
0:18:39 > 0:18:45And in all its years of operation, Imperial Airways never killed a passenger,
0:18:45 > 0:18:48and already they were reaching even further out
0:18:48 > 0:18:53to the Middle East and Baghdad, India and Karachi. One day to Australia.
0:18:53 > 0:18:58And then, it seemed a dream with all that water between, but how about New York?
0:19:04 > 0:19:07And it was pioneering in more ways than one.
0:19:07 > 0:19:12These people are boarding an airliner to be the first ever to view a motion picture in mid-air.
0:19:16 > 0:19:18There's reel one, anyhow.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27The first flying cinema. But where's the picture?
0:19:27 > 0:19:31Perhaps someone has blundered and it wasn't reel one after all.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35But the Atlantic, how about the Atlantic?
0:19:35 > 0:19:37Well, this was one effort.
0:19:37 > 0:19:43An Italian one, built to take 100 people off to New York with all the comfort and trimmings possible.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47The only snag was that far from setting down in the waters of New York harbour,
0:19:47 > 0:19:51to the best of our knowledge, it never got off the waters of Italy.
0:19:51 > 0:19:55But you know how it is with the schemes of mice and men.
0:19:57 > 0:20:02In the cold light of dawn in France, two French airmen,
0:20:02 > 0:20:07Nungesser and Coli, leave on a flight on which they hope to make history,
0:20:07 > 0:20:11for this was meant to be the first Atlantic flight from east to west.
0:20:11 > 0:20:13Up they went into that dawn sky,
0:20:13 > 0:20:18westward over the cliffs of Bologne and out over the wide Atlantic,
0:20:18 > 0:20:21and that was the last anyone ever saw of them.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27The Atlantic, still the master,
0:20:27 > 0:20:31a waste of water not to be conquered easily.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37Then other brave men, this time Americans,
0:20:37 > 0:20:40Lieutenant Commander Noel Davis and Lieutenant Wooster
0:20:40 > 0:20:43in their seven-tonne plane American Legion.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49But they crashed on a practice flight.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53Another attempt on the Atlantic ends in disaster.
0:20:57 > 0:20:58Charles A Lindbergh,
0:20:58 > 0:21:03a 25-year-old American in his tiny monoplane, the Spirit of St Louis.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07There was a £5,000 prize for the first to cross over the Atlantic
0:21:07 > 0:21:09in a single-engined plane without radio.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17'Others, like Chamberlain and Acosta, were ready to go.'
0:21:20 > 0:21:23To be first, there was no time to lose.
0:21:23 > 0:21:28So one dawn, after a worried night without sleep waiting for the weather to improve,
0:21:28 > 0:21:32Charles Lindbergh gassed up his plane to the brim and made ready.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37A flask of coffee, some sandwiches,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41a plane-load of petrol and faith - that's all he started with.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46To those watching it was a terrifying take-off,
0:21:46 > 0:21:51for it seemed as though the fuel-laden plane would never get off the waterlogged ground
0:21:51 > 0:21:55and would end in flaming disaster against the trees.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58But somehow it got off and those who watched
0:21:58 > 0:22:02prayed that his luck would hold like that all the way.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09That morning the world went about its business
0:22:09 > 0:22:13as though Charles A Lindbergh had never been heard of.
0:22:13 > 0:22:18Alone, the Spirit of St Louis flew out over the Eastern Seaboard of America
0:22:18 > 0:22:23and as his native land receded, no doubt Charles Lindbergh wondered
0:22:23 > 0:22:26if that was the last time he would ever see it.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38Before him, thousands of miles of immensity.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42A mighty wilderness of cloud and sea.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45No place for a man to be alone in.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48His life dependent on one tiny throbbing little motor.
0:22:53 > 0:22:59In London, New York and Paris that afternoon, they didn't think much about Charles Lindbergh.
0:22:59 > 0:23:04The evening papers brought the brief news of his last known whereabouts.
0:23:04 > 0:23:05That was all.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11And in those night theatre crowds,
0:23:11 > 0:23:17few passed remark about that lonely chap out there over the Atlantic,
0:23:17 > 0:23:20neither in London nor in New York,
0:23:20 > 0:23:24nor in that city he had planned as his destination, Paris.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33Yet when dawn came over the wilderness,
0:23:33 > 0:23:36that little motor was still throbbing
0:23:36 > 0:23:43and still the great castles of cloud held the lonely voyager.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47Sky and sea, sea and sky.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51Mist, rain, fog,
0:23:51 > 0:23:55and fast-emptying fuel tanks.
0:23:55 > 0:23:56And then...
0:23:56 > 0:23:58land.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00The west coast of Ireland.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10That evening in Paris they had news now and they knew he was coming.
0:24:10 > 0:24:12At Le Bourget, his target,
0:24:12 > 0:24:16the newsreels put up their lights and thousands began to gather to wait
0:24:16 > 0:24:19for hours in excited anticipation,
0:24:19 > 0:24:23to wait for the sound of one tiny little motor.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33In the nearby city, Paris was her usual bright, sparkling self.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37Theatres, clubs and night spots were as full as ever.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40History or no history, Paris remains Paris.
0:24:51 > 0:24:53But now in the darkness at Le Bourget,
0:24:53 > 0:24:57the thousands have swelled to yet more thousands.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00On the airfield, the crowd was uncontrollable.
0:25:00 > 0:25:05Paris and the world has never seen anything like it.
0:25:09 > 0:25:10And then...
0:25:10 > 0:25:13"Is that an aeroplane engine? Is it?
0:25:13 > 0:25:15"Yes!
0:25:15 > 0:25:16"No.
0:25:16 > 0:25:18"But yes!"
0:25:29 > 0:25:32Then lost in a wild, cheering, milling mob,
0:25:32 > 0:25:35an airman tired beyond belief,
0:25:35 > 0:25:41bewildered beyond belief at all that was happening as they brought him in.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44After 33.5 hours of lonely flight,
0:25:44 > 0:25:47the Spirit of St Louis had arrived.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49CHEERING
0:25:56 > 0:25:59Next morning in Paris, the word was,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02"Lindbergh. Lindbergh. We must see Lindbergh!"
0:26:02 > 0:26:05A young man in a borrowed suit
0:26:05 > 0:26:08appeared on the balcony of the American embassy,
0:26:08 > 0:26:13took bow after bow and made wave after wave, still bewildered.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16CHEERING
0:26:18 > 0:26:21A day or so later, he flew to London, to Croydon,
0:26:21 > 0:26:25and here again he was overwhelmed at the way that he was received.
0:26:31 > 0:26:36Although Alcock and Brown had conquered the Atlantic back in 1919,
0:26:36 > 0:26:40no-one could deny that this was Lindbergh's moment -
0:26:40 > 0:26:45the man who conquered loneliness as well as the Atlantic.
0:26:45 > 0:26:50The time to consider just how far we'd gone and how far we were now going.
0:26:53 > 0:26:58The same year, 1927, a new gleaming shape.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01The Supermarine Schneider Trophy plane
0:27:01 > 0:27:05in which designer Mitchell displayed the future as he saw it.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15The same year, 1927,
0:27:15 > 0:27:19Britain's first great aircraft carrier moves out to sea.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21The future again.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27The same year, 1927,
0:27:27 > 0:27:31already airliners carrying passengers in comfort
0:27:31 > 0:27:33many miles to their business,
0:27:33 > 0:27:38but in everything, there always has to be a first time.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40# Blackbird, blackbird
0:27:40 > 0:27:43# Singing the blues all day
0:27:43 > 0:27:47# Right outside of my door... #
0:27:47 > 0:27:51Time To Remember chronicled the era when humanity achieved true mastery of the skies.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53In the first half of the 20th century,
0:27:53 > 0:27:58Pathe's cameras captured decisive moments in the development of technologies
0:27:58 > 0:28:00that would transform our world.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04Through a combination of ingenuity, resourcefulness and courage,
0:28:04 > 0:28:08the flying pioneers provided moments of triumph and tragedy.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14Whether for military, industrial or purely recreational purposes,
0:28:14 > 0:28:17aviation changed the course of history.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20# Pack up all my cares and woe
0:28:20 > 0:28:23# Here I go, singing low
0:28:23 > 0:28:27# Bye-bye, blackbird
0:28:27 > 0:28:30# Where somebody waits for me
0:28:30 > 0:28:33# Sugar sweet and so is she
0:28:33 > 0:28:38# Bye-bye, blackbird
0:28:38 > 0:28:43# No-one here can love and understand me
0:28:43 > 0:28:48# Oh, what hard-luck stories they all hand me
0:28:48 > 0:28:51# Make my bed and light the light... #
0:28:52 > 0:28:55Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:55 > 0:28:58E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk