Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Activities of the Royal Aero Club of South Australia (c.1935)

play Please note: this clip is silent
Email a link to this page
To:
CC:
Subject:
Body:
clip
  • 1
  • 2
Gipsy Moth in flight education content clip 1

Original classification rating: not rated. This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

A DH60G 'de Havilland’ Gipsy Moth is prepared for flight at the Adelaide Parafield. Chief pilot of the Royal Aero Club of South Australia Jack Buckham, locks the wings of the plane into position. The plane is filled with fuel. From inside the cockpit, John Mack films a flight over parts of Adelaide including the oval at the showgrounds.

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This silent black-and-white clip shows a de Havilland DH60G Gipsy Moth plane, registration VH-UIB, in action in the 1930s. In the first scene the plane is shown side-on and then with its wings in the transport position being wheeled out of a hangar. The wings are then moved into the forward secure position and the plane filled with fuel. After an intertitle, 'Let us “take-off” for a quick flip’, scenes filmed from the cockpit show the runway as the plane hurtles to take-off and then bird’s-eye views of Adelaide.

Educational value points

  • The DH60G Gipsy Moth was part of the D60 series of pre-Second World War light aircraft and was an early training biplane in the history of aviation. Designed by the de Havilland Aircraft Company in the 1920s, the Moths were produced as affordable easy-to-fly private planes for the civilian market. More than 800 were built including 32 by Larkin Aircraft Supply Company in Melbourne. The Gipsy Moth was a precursor to the very popular Tiger Moth.
  • As revealed in the clip, the Gipsy Moth is only a small aircraft – 7.29 m long, 2.68 m high and an unfolded span of 9.14 m – about the same dimensions as a modern double garage, but its size made it ideal for training. The plane was popular before, during and after the Second World War. Altogether 122 Gipsy Moths appeared on the RAAF register during the War including this one, which was pressed into service in 1944.
  • Basically a trainer, the Gipsy Moth could not fly very far (about 515 km) or climb very high (4,420 m). However, with a Gipsy1 engine rated at 100 horsepower (74 kW) and a speed of 164 km per h, it broke many light-plane records around the world. As seen in the clip, flying in it was an exhilarating experience. The noise of the wind in the wires, the roar of the straight-out exhaust and the feel of the slipstream in the open cockpit all contributed to the experience.
  • The clip offers an aerial view of the city and surrounds of Adelaide, South Australia, as they were in the 1930s and of the facilities of Parafield Airport, including the hangar built by the Royal Aero Club of South Australia in 1927. The flight over Adelaide reveals the planned design of the city and the surprising number of multistorey buildings in the city centre.
  • Much of the historical value of home-movie footage like this lies in its eye-witness record of times past and its narrative of personal interests and enthusiasms. Although amateur, the cinematography and editing are not unskilful, particularly the aerial work. Numerous angle shots are used to add interest to scenes such as filling the plane with fuel. The intertitles are shaky, but they nonetheless reveal the filmmaker’s joy in flying.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer Gipsy Moth in flight from the home movie Activities of the Royal Aero Club of South Australia as a high quality video download.

To play the downloadable video, you need QuickTime 7.0, VLC, or similar.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before downloading the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

This clip is available in the following configurations:

File nameSizeQualitySuitability
royalaer1_pr.mp4 Large: 18.2MB High Optimised for full-screen display on a fast computer.
royalaer1_bb.mp4 Medium: 8.6MB Medium Can be displayed full screen. Also suitable for video iPods.

Right-click on the links above to download video files to your computer.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer this clip in an embeddable format for personal or non-commercial educational use in full form on your own website or your own blog.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before embedding the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

Copy and paste the following code into your own web page to embed this clip: