The Box is a major cultural and heritage attraction and archive, which opened in Plymouth’s city centre in September 2020. Its collection, formally the South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA), is the regional film archive for the South West of England, comprising the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and Television South West (TSW). It also includes a significant number of donated film collections dating back to the early 1890s.
This film is part of Free
Flying boats visit Plymouth
Plymouth Sound serves as an aquatic airport for the RAF Far East Flight and its four Supermarine seaplanes en route to Australia and Singapore.
From the collection of:
Overview
You can almost hear the propellers, smell the fuel and feel the spray whilst watching this title. Seaplanes landing and taking off in Plymouth Sound is the main event of this thrilling film. This includes a spectacular flyby of Plymouth Hoe and a glimpse of the historic pier which was subsequently bombed into oblivion during the Blitz.
This film shows the first leg of the RAF Far East Flight landing in Plymouth from Felixstowe before taking off three days later to undertake the first long distance exploratory flight to Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong culminating in the setting up of 205 Squadron in Singapore, the first RAF unit to be permanently based there. Pilots and planes shown are: S1152 Group Captain H.M. Cave-Brown-Cave, S1151 Flight Lieutenant C.G. Wrigglesworth, S1150 Flight Lieutenant D.V. Carnegie and S1149 Squadron Leader G.E. Livock.
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