who this is to be a movie about fly one of my very favorite subjects fact is that i'd rather talk about especially during this fiftieth anniversary year of powered  flight course i like to talk about radio and television they've been mighty good to this country boy this is the way i make my living makes the living worthwhile as they get out there in the wild blue yonder good airplane for the whole universe not just because it's a thrill although it certainly is that but because i like to think that aviation as used to fly around and friends in those facts the dean of the beach just think he's been flying for nearly forty years why it's only fifty years since the wright brothers you know they call me one of the old timers in aviation but i didn't begin to fly in earnest i'm still nineteen twenty nine gosh that's almost twenty five years ago and you know i've done more flying in the last three years than i did the first twenty two let me show you i have been commissioned in the naval reserves since one nine hundred thirty nine but because of an old injury to my leg the bureau of medicine and surgery wouldn't clear me for military airplanes flying until as a carrier pilot as a jet pilot as a helicopter pilot and here is the coveted navy green to get the highest instrument rating given to navy pilots of course i'm very proud of all of captain in eastern airlines as i was saying planes have come a long way in the last fifty years is one very much like the one that the wright brothers used to make forty to fifty miles an hour and still want to throw these around so it's a funny looking at things but most of the basic principles we use today were developed in this plane didn't fly and it didn't pressure packed there and this stick this column and this wheel is exactly the same as we have in the big airliners up today when i push the stick knows that flip it comes down to pushes the tail up in the nose down vice versa this way i want to drop the right wing do it this way left this way and here are the rudder bars that work the writers in the tail is see the principles were the same then as they are today no difference here is a model of a span the airplane that captain eddie rickenbacker flew in world war one only ten or twelve years after the wright brothers first flight it's a shame that it had to be used as a weapon of destruction so soon but the war brought that on this is captain rickenbacker in the plane made famous in world war one these old films show the dashing young skipper of the ninety four squadron leading his boys into a dogfight to head in the ring insignia was always present when the fighting was thick and the wild blue yonder was really wild in those days when there was just so much wood canvas between you and the enemy between you when the ground down in flames was the rule rather than the exception they had no protection they had no parachute yes they paid a high price but it was through captain reagan backers explodes in world war one that the terrific fighting power in the airplanes was made known to man this little sped carried a very powerful engine for those days and often flew up to one hundred thirty five miles an hour straight down there aren't many of them left but you becomes one of those old timers now look at that super constellation called hundred and fourteen feet long with a wingspan of a hundred and twenty three feet more of the latest compound in engines of thirty two hundred fifty horsepower each do you realize how much power that is why each engine has more power than a locomotive this plane can fly up to around four hundred miles an hour and we are going to take a ride in and let's hear what kept it he is saying either one of those wheels are always the most a united states and canada i think so the dispatcher's office is the central intelligence for all aircraft they know where every plane is every minute on this big board the clerk knows the position of each plane on route as reported by radio and the time do with the next checkpoint we fill out our flight plan with the dispatcher giving our exact route a flight the elephant to the amount of fuel and so a copy of this will be filed with the government here ways traffic control out of that not tell you the dispatcher gives us official clearance and on our way been up on a flight that before this is a the captain and the pilot have the flying controllers at their fingertips at all times well over here the engineer is very busy with the engine points to where we want to go when we tune in a radio station this is the flux compass and this one is the all reliable magnetic compass just like columbus had when he came over this is the localizer and glide path indicator which we saw a little bit more later this is the artificial horizon it shows the attitude of our plane with reference to the real horizon course you know that we have radio contact at all times ship the ship hit the ground to the transmitters and receivers the display has already been very thoroughly checked by the maintenance department and during the last hour was checked by our own flight engineer that's not enough pilots the captain have one two three lists of checks to make before we start down the runway to take a look a dick will do before starting as soon as the second engine starts the ground crew checks with the cockpit hydraulic pressure up now the safety pins can be removed from the free landing otherwise it could not be retracted when the plane is in the  commercial plane in the air today she carries forty people at a cruising speed of around three hundred miles an hour one of the most comfortable airplanes you could ever write eastern uses them to pick up passengers from intermediate points to connect with these big super economies the wonderful airplane that silver falcon our people often ask me i can figure out how you do this in good weather and overlaying but how do you navigate when you're up over the clouds and over the ocean well honestly it's so simple i hate to tell you look let me show you how it works