I happily rambled on about Air Outpost, the documentary that was filmed in 1937 about the desert airport of Shar Jar - we have had a copy of this amazing film for many years on videotape.
Well, now it's online. The National has snaffled a copy and posted it up on its website - so you can now go here, watch it and decide for yourself if I was right to call the Brits in it 'preposterous'! The original blog post has more background on the fillum.
Enjoy!
Air Outpost
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3 comments:
I agree about the film being great. One small correction: The film was actually made in 1937 (the 1927 at the beginning fooled me too, but that seems to just be something to do with the censor).
I only discovered this because a friend and I spent almost an hour trying to find out everything we could about the plane (a Handley Page H.P. 42) and discovered that it wasn't made until 1931.
You're right, Brn, about the 1937 - I dashed by in a hurry today and posted this, but have always known it to be 1937 - I actually have copies of the timetables (from Croydon to Cairo, down to S/Africa or to join with QANTAS to Orstralia) as JPG files. One of the HPs was lost over the Hajjar mountains (or Indian Ocean) in 1939.
The original HP 42s flying the route were three, if I recall, the Hannibal, the Hanno and I think (might get this one wrong), the Heracles!
Anyway, I did something I don't usually do - I corrected the post itself.
I'll post up the timetables tomorrow! :)
Tally ho!
Yep, we looked up that HP in the film ("Hanno" named after Hanno the Navigator) was destroyed in a gale (along with the Hercules) at Bristol in 1940. A photo of the wreckage is here. Can't wait to see the timetables.
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