First Aerial Photography

Wilbur Wright und seine Flugmaschine

This flight demonstration of American aviation pioneer Wilbur Wright was of a special historic nature: it involved images from the first camera aboard a plane! The two-seater plane with Wilbur Wright at the helm did a lap before an audience of photographers, army men and noteworthy moustached men and just avoided the cameraman on the ground. Then the plane started up again, followed a launching pad and took off: the camera was fixed for the first time on the ground that gave way…and the emotion was there, so great you could almost touch it! The image was as unstable as the cabin of the plane flying at low altitude, flying over the countryside and gradually approaching a town.

Click here and watch the film! If there was an embed code available, I'd have posted it here. But, Europa Film Treasures seems to want you to watch it on their site. It's worth a look.

H/T Nunkle Kim