Wilbur Wright und seine Flugmaschine
Encyclopedia
Wilbur Wright und seine Flugmaschine (Wilbur Wright and his Flying Machine) is the German viewing market title of a silent film made in 1909 and is considered to be the first-ever use of motion picture aerial photography
Aerial photography
Aerial photography is the taking of photographs of the ground from an elevated position. The term usually refers to images in which the camera is not supported by a ground-based structure. Cameras may be hand held or mounted, and photographs may be taken by a photographer, triggered remotely or...

 as filmed from a heavier-than-air aircraft.

It was filmed April 24, 1909 near Rome by French cinematographic company Société Générale des Cinématographes Eclipse.

The events leading up to the creation of the film began in 1908 when the Wright brothers
Wright brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur , were two Americans credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903...

 received an invitation from the Compagnie Générale de Navigation Aérienne to ship a Wright Flyer
Wright Flyer
The Wright Flyer was the first powered aircraft, designed and built by the Wright brothers. They flew it four times on December 17, 1903 near the Kill Devil Hills, about four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, U.S.The U.S...

 "Model A" airplane to France and fly it at Le Mans
Le Mans
Le Mans is a city in France, located on the Sarthe River. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Mans. Le Mans is a part of the Pays de la Loire region.Its inhabitants are called Manceaux...

 to dispel any remaining doubt that they had indeed conquered heavier-than-air flight. Since few had witnessed their earlier successes, many in Europe were skeptical about their claims. Some skeptics in the European press went so far as to claim that the stories were a "bluff." The August 30, 1908 edition of Le petit journal illustré was quoted as saying, "The experiments that Wilbur Wright is carrying out in France at the moment victoriously responded to this accusation." Among those present for the public demonstrations prior to the filming was Louis Blériot
Louis Blériot
Louis Charles Joseph Blériot was a French aviator, inventor and engineer. In 1909 he completed the first flight across a large body of water in a heavier-than-air craft, when he crossed the English Channel. For this achievement, he received a prize of £1,000...

, who would cross the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

 by plane the following year.

It begins with a shot of Wilbur Wright starting the engine; an unidentified assistant (quite likely his brother, Orville) is seen at the front of the aircraft. From there, shots of the aircraft in flight with Wright at the controls along with an unidentified passenger cut to shots of onlookers on the ground, presumably military and press liaisons. The aircraft is shown in side-to-side flybys as well as low-altitude passes directly toward and away from the camera.

The aerial shots begin at the 1:34 mark immediately after a shot of the aircraft coming to a landing directly approaching the camera. A title card appears which reads Aufnahmen von der Flugmaschine aus gemacht, or "Shots Taken from the Flying Machine." From there, the shot is of the aircraft on its launch sled as it is being prepared for takeoff. An assistant at the rear of the plane, again presumably Orville Wright, starts the engine as Wilbur Wright takes his seat at the controls. The actual onboard shots, with the camera mounted on the left lower wing near Wright's seating position begin at approximately the two-minute mark of the film as the aircraft lifts off from the launch sled. The canard
Canard
Canard may refer to:*Nicolas-François Canard , French mathematician and economist*Canard , a small wing mounted on the front of some aircraft, which can be beneficial or detrimental depending on the design of the plane and its intended use*Canard , a phenomenon in some slow-fast dynamical systems...

, elevator
Elevator (aircraft)
Elevators are flight control surfaces, usually at the rear of an aircraft, which control the aircraft's orientation by changing the pitch of the aircraft, and so also the angle of attack of the wing. In simplified terms, they make the aircraft nose-up or nose-down...

 and the elevator's control cord are in the foreground of the film as the Italian countryside (complete with livestock, a man on horseback and the ruins of a Roman aqueduct
Roman aqueduct
The Romans constructed numerous aqueducts to serve any large city in their empire, as well as many small towns and industrial sites. The city of Rome had the largest concentration of aqueducts, with water being supplied by eleven aqueducts constructed over a period of about 500 years...

) passes beneath.

Wilbur Wright und seine Flugmaschine has been restored and archived by Filmarchiv Austria
Filmarchiv Austria
The Filmarchiv Austria is an organisation for the discovery, reconstruction and preservation of Austrian film record material: films themselves, literature about film and cinema, or film-related periodicals...

.
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